


Catharsis [Reloaded]

by SkinnyBoi0321



Category: Original Work
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Heavy on Action, High School, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Strong Language, Superheroes, Superpowers, Teen Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-07
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2020-04-12 04:37:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 30,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19124752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkinnyBoi0321/pseuds/SkinnyBoi0321
Summary: What would your life be like if you and people you knew had superpowers? Well, that scenario is basically my life now, and I intend to do some good with them. High school is tough in and of itself, superpowers or none, and not everyone will be as benevolent with them; but Imma work with what and who I got proudly.





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> This was my first ever project when I decided I wanted to take up writing as a hobby; it has gone through many edits and I do understand that it's still flawed, but this whole scenario of people in my life having superpowers and how life would be like just needed to be expressed in writing form. I hope you guys enjoy this!
> 
> Also, you'll notice in the work title that the word Reloaded is in brackets; that is due to the fact that, as of 09/15/19, I've restarted the work due to major editing of chapter-/paragraph-length and maybe plot revisions as well as minor editing such as spelling & grammar.

Sunday, January 8.

It’s a cold winter day here in Southern California, although the sun is still very much apparent in the mostly clear skies. Specifically today, while Mom and Dad are resting or doing household chores, Kuya Daniel is about to leave in order to hang out with his friends while I’m at the homework table and quietly drawing. While I do appreciate certain company with me, tomorrow is the first day back to school from winter break and I’d prefer resting at home over being out & about right now. 

Kuya Daniel is walking out of his room, ready to leave, when he notices me across the loft and teases, “Come on, dude; you really need to get out more. You told me that you already finished your winter break homework days ago, and yet you’re at the table drawing by yourself instead of being with your friends that you never bring to the house.”

I reply, “One, tomorrow is my first day back to school from winter break while you don’t start back at college until the 30th; you have the luxury of time to rest more whereas I really just want to rest before I start tomorrow. Two, I do have friends, but they’re bound to have their own plans and I’m not the type to intrude. Three, I don’t bring my friends to the house ‘cause I’m scared of either of the parents getting judgy of my choices once they leave the house. And four, it’s not like I necessarily have the freedoms that a license and car give due to having neither of those.”

“It’s ridiculous that you’re almost 18 & already a senior in high school but still don’t have your driver’s license. What gives, man?”

“I do admit that I have had my permit for a while, but Mom is always working and Dad is trying to find a job, so I don’t want to be in their way. Also, although you’re my older brother, the permit explicitly states that I must have someone 25 years old or older with me at all times in the car; based on that, you’re not allowed to be the only one in the car with me due to only turning 20 this upcoming March.”

“That’s not the full explanation and you know it. Besides, they’re not always working, and when they do have time you seem to take advantage for practice.”

Tired of the conversation, I simply sigh and repel him, “Your friends must be waiting.”

He walks off, “I’m your older brother, but I can’t take care of you forever; and don’t forget that I work too. See you soon, fart bag.” He grabs his jacket and approaches the staircase.

I respond, “Don’t freakin’ call me that, Kuya! It’s embarrassing.”

Kuya Daniel rebuttals as he’s walking down the stairs, “And learn how to swear! It’s fine to say fuck! Bye, fart bag!”

I answer, “Swearing’s an easy and aggressive way out, but there are so many other words in the English language to use. Not to mention that stopping myself from swearing keeps me in moral and emotional control!” I get no response for that whole response since he’s already downstairs by the time he said his bye.

_ I hate it when he calls me that. Still, he’s my brother, so I guess I have to tolerate it. _ A little later, my mind trails off,  _ How do I tell my strict parents who’re slowly losing their patience with me about this topic that I’m not taking initiative with my license because I want them to focus on them first without making it sound like an excuse? Not to mention I’m afraid of driving in general: my own life, the lives of my passengers, and the lives of other drivers rest in my hands; am I really capable of that certain responsibility? _

My mind trails off again by focusing back on Kuya Daniel’s friends argument; I reach for my phone and observe my contacts.  _ Let’s see: Mom; Dad; Kuya Daniel; a multitude of cousins from Dad’s side that I’ve seen so many times this winter so I don’t think I should start a conversation on the cousin chat without a good reason; I do have two friends from karate, Colby & Nathan, but they’re most probably out for their breaks or resting for their own schools to start soon as well; I do have other friends in here, but I think that they just see me as a ‘class-exclusive friend’ to help with classwork or exchange a few laughs; and there are others that I think don’t even remember me or forgot to tell me if they changed their numbers yet I’m too scared to ask or delete the numbers.  _ Finding no one that I really want to try to text, I set my phone back down on the table and resume my drawing of me if I was morphed with a sky-blue & black crane with red eyes.


	2. First Day Back

January 9th. 

I’m already at school with a good pace and energy in me. My classes themselves don’t change from the fall semester, so I still have Culinary Arts II, AP Psych, AP Gov, Reg English, AP Stats, and free 6th period this spring semester. 

Culinary and AP Psych passed by quickly, so now it’s 10:03 am and time for a schoolwide 10-minutes break. The sun is shining brilliantly this morning, so I thought to reflect that by having a genuinely bright disposition, asking people about their day so far & their vacations; despite my optimism, every smile and greeting was reciprocated only by small conversations like “Hi, Matthew,” “It was good,” and “How was yours?” without much behind any word.

_ It’s only 10 in the morning, not to mention the first day back, so everyone must still be tired or not really wanting to be here; basically the high school experience. I shouldn’t take it too much to heart. _

Resolved with that thought, I casually walk to my AP Gov class; as I step through the opening, Mr. Miller immediately spots me while he’s at his standing computer desk and proclaims, “There he is! Matthew! How ya doing, man?”

As he walks up to me in order to bring up a fist-bump, I reciprocate the fist-bump as I state, “I’m great, Mr. Miller! Everyone else, maybe not so much, but I’m trying. How was your break?”

Before he could answer, the clock strikes 10:09 and the one-minute bell rings for everyone to hurry for their classes; Mr. Miller answers, “Sorry, Matthew, but I’ll answer when everyone is here so everyone could hear it, okay?” I simply nod, check for my new seat on the seating-chart, and walk to my seat in the middle-column & fourth-row of chairs. 

My new chair neighbor is Samantha, or just Sam; despite being seated next to her for the first time so far in this class this year, I’ve known Sam since junior year but we’ve only really bonded this year due to having Culinary II, this class, and Reg English together. We’ve bonded ‘cause of our mutual love for Avatar: the Last Airbender and DCTV shows on the CW channel like The Flash among other shows; she has been trying to convince me for the longest time to watch a newer show called Stranger Things, but I don’t have Netflix and I’m not really into the whole horror-fantasy genre.

I start the conversation, “Oh my gosh; I feel like I just saw you!”

Not entirely getting the joke, Sam answers, “Yeah, Matthew; we were literally in Culinary class over an hour ago. And we’ve had this class together so far this year, so you shouldn’t be surprised.”

_ Why is it that when I try to joke, no one gets it? Is my sense of humor really that stupid? _

Sam continues, “Anyways, what’s up?”

I answer, “I don’t know; just look up.”

Sam responds with a big laugh, “Oh my gosh, stop, Matthew! You did that every time we texted this whole break.”

I giggle, “Well, you probably shouldn’t ask that question if you're expecting the same answer!” Both of us proceed to laugh loudly together. As my laugh slowly fades, I start to think,  _ It’s amazing how this girl doesn't get sick of me and my sassy butt.  _ However, once this thought ends, I attempt to place my right hand on my desk as I’m still facing Sam for a lean, but I completely miss the table and fall to the ground! 

Everyone that’s in the room turn their heads in my direction, including Sam, but it’s another girl who comes to my aid. “Oh God, Matthew! Are you okay?!”

Sam and I just laugh even more as I stand up and reassure this girl, “I’m good, Therese; luckily, I landed on my backpack, so not too much damage.”

Therese sighs before joking, “Okay, cool. Then again, I shouldn’t be so surprised because you had that clumsiness in elementary school when you tried to start all of those dance battles in recess.”

As I let out a weak laugh, Sam intervenes, “Wait, did you say ‘dance battles’? Oh, I need to hear about this!”

The bell rings just in time ( _ Thank God _ ) and I answer, “Another time,” before I finally sit down, and all the students eventually arrive in time for us to start class.

Thirty minutes in the class, Mr. Miller is in the middle of lecturing about the difference between civil liberties and civil rights, when the main door suddenly flies open and allows 2 men dressing in all-black and each holding an unusual-looking firearm;  _ It’s curious that there were no alarms or any announcement through the intercom about a lockdown in response to intruders on the campus. _ Everyone drops to the floor & under their desks while the intruders are yelling for Mr. Miller to stand up; Mr. Miller, either out of fear or bravery, doesn’t obey their orders to stand. In response, the intruder closest to Mr. Miller aims and fires his weapon in front of Miller’s feet; even more distressing, no bullet flies through the air in Miller’s direction, but rather a beam of concentrated pale-yellow light!  _ A laser firearm! Is that even possible?! _ After this bold move, Mr. Miller jolts up with his hands above his head, pleading for the men to not harm the students. The man closest to him pulls at his collar and shoves him into the whiteboard forcefully while the other man still has his weapon locked onto the students.  _ That’s enough: _ I stand from under my seat and let my right arm fly in the direction of the man whose back is facing me while he grips Mr. Miller; with my arm extended fully forward, a brilliantly electric-blue ice shard pierces through the air and collides with the back of the intruder’s head, effectively knocking him out! Everyone in the room turns in my direction with shocked expressions as the target falls to the ground, and the other intruder swiftly points his laser-gun in my direction. Instinctively, I let out a strong exhale while a pair of large sky-blue-&-black wings spontaneously appear on my back; the intruder is now shaking as my eyes slowly develop as red behind a black sclera, so I soar over many desks towards his direction since he’s not discharging his weapon. To finish this, I straighten myself in midair while bringing my left knee to my chest, then I quickly switch bends between my legs and thrust my right leg forwards, resulting in a flying thrust kick square on the intruder’s forehead! The man instantly drops to the ground, so I quickly attempt to turn him on his stomach & restrain his arms. The first intruder has regained consciousness and charges towards the entrance, but I point my left arm towards the base of the door, magically pointing a beam of cold mist to that spot and creating a wall of ice that grows all the way to the ceiling of the room! The man stops in his tracks, and he’s in the middle of turning back so that he doesn’t notice me charging at him until it’s too late for I leap once more and push my knees & shins against his chest; the momentum is enough to push his back and head to the block of ice, which immediately wraps around most of his body upon contact due to my masterful control. With one restrained and the other literally frozen, the intruders have been stopped and the class suddenly erupts in either in loud cheers or surprised commentary.

“Matthew!”

I sharply exhale as I’m brought back to reality by the call of my name and Therese poking at my arm, a reality where I see many eyes pointed in my direction as I sit & stare into space.

The caller, Mr. Miller, clears his throat and restates, “Now that you’re back with us, could you please us the general difference between civil liberties and civil rights?”

With a slight hesitancy, I answer, “Civil liberties are basic means of protection or freedoms in society, while civil rights are policies designed specifically to protect citizens from inequality based upon discriminatory factors such as race, gender, socioeconomic status, and more.”

Mr. Miller responds, “Great job, Matthew. But please pay attention.” Once I nod in agreement, he jabs a thumbs-up and continues with his lecture for the rest of the class. 

***

Third period is finally over, and Sam & I quickly pack up our things so that we could walk to our Reg English class together. I let Sam walk out the door first, then I catch up to her side. We’re casually walking and talking the short distance from Mr. Miller’s classroom to Mrs. Hale’s classroom, but I suddenly stop in my own tracks at the sight of a familiar but supposedly-misplaced face sitting in a desk with some football players once Sam and I arrive at the door.

_ Jack? What’s he doing in this class, and as a junior?  _ Jack, 6’something”, and quarterback for the Mission Hills High Varsity Football Team. He’s familiar to me not because of football [since I lack the supposed minimum amount of school spirit], but because we met in 7th grade: middle school was … interesting for me emotionally & socially, so I wasn’t super receptive to our interactions at the time; he got purposely held back when we were supposed to be promoted together because of this situation where he could be in Varsity football by his freshman year if he repeated 8th. He eventually came to Mission Hills as a freshman while I was a sophomore, and he was always so busy with school and/or football that we could never really settle down for a chance at starting a real friendship. Now, here he is in his spring semester of his junior year taking a senior class; more specifically, one of MY classes.

Sam notices my hesitance to enter the class, so she nudges at my arm, “Are you okay, Matthew? What’s wrong?”

I simply tell her, “Nothing; I’m good. Is there a new seating chart?” As we walk to the front of the class to look for a seating chart, the mind trails,  _ Hmm, he looks busy with his football teammates; better just to let him be. Besides, why would someone like that talk to me? _

Neither Sam or I find a seating chart at the front desk, so we walk up to Mrs. Hale herself and Sam asks, “Hi, Mrs. Hale! We didn’t find a seating chart, so where do we sit?”

Mrs. Hale booms with high tone, “Hi, Sam! Hi, Matthew! It’s only the first day back and we have some new people in the class this semester, so I’ve decided that you can sit anywhere today or at least until I confirm that the transfers are here to stay sometime this week.” 

The both of us thank her, then walk back towards the door in order to scope out places to sit; we find a set of desks with friends already seated towards the back of the classroom, so we start walking there. As we’re walking, something unexpected happens: Jack looks up and excuses himself from his seat which surprises his teammates, walks up to me as I relieve myself from my backpack, softly nudges me on my right arm and asks, “Hey, big dog! Wanna catch up outside?” 

After a very brief moment of hesitance out of pure surprise, I respond, “Um, sure Jack. Just let me unpack first and I’ll meet you outside, okay?”

Jack answers,”Sure thing.” 

As he’s walking out the door and I’m unpacking my binder & pencil case, Sam interjects, “Hey, who was that? I don’t remember him being in this class last semester.”

I answer, “That’s Jack; just a friend of mine that I haven’t talked to in a while. I can explain more about him if you want, but I don’t want to keep him waiting.” Done with unpacking my things onto my desk, I hurriedly walk outside to be greeted by a swift hug around my neck.

Jack starts the conversation with a huge smile as I reciprocate the hug, “Matt, it’s so great to see you! I didn’t know you had this class.”

I continue as we release our hug, “Well, I didn’t think you would be taking senior-level classes yet. Aren’t you still a junior?”

“Yeah, I am; but the school and my family agreed that I can start some senior classes this semester so I can graduate early.”

“Wow, that’s commitment. So, how many is some?”

“Just two: this class and a science.” 

“Geez, that’s so great, Jack. I always knew you were the hardworking type.”

“Yeah, but it’s too bad that we haven’t gotten to see each other more often while we were here.”

“It is, but it’s also understandable since you're you with football and school among everything else in your life, and I’m me with everything in my life.”

“True, but at least we have a class together so we can talk more. Hey, how’s Danny?”

“Oh, he’s great. Kuya is always working but also still in school.”

Confused, Jack questions, “Wait, who’s Kuya?”

Catching what I just said, I respond, “Oh sorry! That’s a habit of mine to call him that: Kuya means ‘older brother’ in Tagalog, the official language of the Philippines.”

“Huh, that’s nice. And you don’t need to apologize, Matt.”

“Anyways, how's your mom? I miss those days when she was my PE teacher in San Elijo.”

“She’s doing great too; still teaching there and still loving it.”

“That’s awes--” The conversation is cut short by the sound of the one minute bell ringing throughout the campus and the feet pounding at the ground as students run in all directions.

Before I say anything else, Jack inputs, “Would you like to talk later?”

I nod at the idea, then raise my right hand for a fist bump that he quickly prepped with his right hand. Then, the two of us walk to our seats once we enter the classroom; as I sit, I look down at my desk with a stupid smirk on my face, then I look up to sneak a peek at Jack waving to me with his own stupidly bright smile.

***

Kuya Daniel picks me up from school later that day, and we’re just rocking out to his Trap music on his Spotify as we’re cruising down the road. We reach home safely despite Kuya Daniel being a fast driver, and we enter the house to behold Mom in the guest bedroom trying to assemble something that she got from Costco.

Kuya Daniel greets her with a kiss first then walks out of the room. I enter the room second and question her, “Hi, Mom. How are you?”

Mom goes straight to business, “Why is the Christmas tree still up? The Christmas season is already done. You guys had the whole break to put it away!”

I respond, “Sorry; just a lot has been happening lately with school starting today and I’ve been trying to practice for my driving test.”

Quickly changing subjects, Mom continues, “I think that’s a lie because I barely see you studying or driving.”

“Well, I have been asking Dad to practice with me when I go to school in the mornings and whenever else he’s available.”

“Fine. Can you go into the garage and find me a Phillips screwdriver?”

I simply nod my head in her direction, then I set my backpack down on my chair at the kitchen table. Walking into the garage and stopping in front of the whole drawer-setup for the tools, I open the drawer labelled with “Screwdrivers” to then think,  _ I don’t see any screwdrivers with the Phillips label _ . I shuffle more through the drawer to still find nothing with a Phillip’s logo, so I walk back inside empty-handed.

Noticing my empty hands once I enter the room, Mom’s voice elevates, “Did you really find nothing?”

I answer, “I didn’t find any screwdrivers with a Phillips logo on them.”

Mom scoffs at my answer and responds louder, “Oh my gosh, Matthew! Where is your common sense?”

My mind trails as I drop my gaze towards my feet,  _ Are you kidding me with this whole ‘common sense’ thing again? _

Mom continues, “A Phillips screwdriver is the one that looks like a plus sign. Did you really not know this?”

I was tempted with expressing the thought,  _ No, I didn’t learn that at all because my school didn’t seem to think that knowing the names of screwdrivers were integral in my education. _ However, I also know that sass would only infuriate her even more, so I settled with, “I’m sorry; I’ll look again” with a tone that was secretly pleading for the yelling to stop.

As I’m leaving the room, Mom inputs still with an almost condescending tone, “Matthew, sometimes I worry that you won’t survive; you have all A’s, and yet you have no street smarts or anything else.”

_ You don’t allow me to have a girlfriend, and yet you’re jumping to the conclusion that I won’t survive in the future on my own? _ I simply walk back to the garage, grab any one of the plus-sign-tipped screwdrivers in the Screwdrivers drawer, walk hurriedly back to the guest bedroom, hand the screwdriver safely into Mom’s hand without much emotion on my face, and grab my backpack in order to bring it upstairs for homework at the homework table. 


	3. So Much for Excitement

Friday, January 13.

Things were slow in school throughout the week since both staff & students alike were getting back into the groove of things. Not much homework from any of my classes, so I’ve just been home on my electronics, drawings, and dancing in my room; with the weekend coming up, I’m not sure if there’s going to be much of a difference.

Today, everything was just as slow & mundane from getting ready for school to the silent ride to Culinary II to AP Psych; I walk to AP Gov class with an eagerness for some excitement, but I might be asking for too much since it is AP Government. I immediately sit down in my desk once I enter the room, not being greeted by anyone or greeting people as well; the one-minute bell rings after a few minutes of me just sitting at my desk and everyone is pouring into the classroom all at the same time. 

As people are settling in, the final bell is replaced by the fire alarm and the rings of unusual-sounding gunshots coming from outside!  _ This is definitely not a drill! _ I think as I feel the whole atmosphere saturating with anxiety, not only from the classmates surrounding me in this room but from all of the muffled screams I could hear from beyond the walls and above the ceiling. Everyone is ducking under their desks, running to huddle with friends, or rushing to close the doors & window-blinds; a few seconds pass before everyone is safely hiding from plain sight with the lights switched off.

Fate wouldn’t be so kind, for the door is forcefully pulled off of its lock in one fluid motion. The cloudy day offered only so much light, but what available morning light was used to behold a man with a lean yet muscular build sporting all black attire and no mask; the impulsive lack of cover allowed a look at his face: early- to mid-20s and supremely angry. The mystery man strides from the broken door towards Mr. Miller at the front desk; the man then effortlessly grabs at Mr. Miller’s shirt-collar with both hands and hoists him to his face-level.

As every student in my classroom screams in fear, we can’t help but keep our attention on the man as he booms, “Where is the money, old man?!”

Mr. Miller responds out of confusion, “Frankie, what are you doing here? Are you insane?”

Frankie responds, “I need money NOW! Where is it?”

Mr. Miller struggles to speak with two hands against his throat, so he gasps, “Once your younger sisters were born, your mother and I immediately started their college funds; so they have the money that was in the house safe in their own accounts at the bank.”

Frankie grits his teeth together, then shoves his father to the wall with the whiteboard out of pure frustration. Immediately after Mr. Miller connects with the floor, Frankie pulls out an object from his right pants pocket: the same exact laser-firearm from my daydream! As my heart sinks out of sheer empuzzlement, Frankie maniacally shouts, “I knew you always loved those little brats more than me! I was always the family disappointment, right?” His breathing intensifies, “You will set things right by transferring the money to me, or …;” he then points the gun only a couple feet away from his father’s face before continuing, “I’ll make sure the little princesses live without a father.”

No matter how stupid this next decision was, I couldn’t just squat at my desk any longer while this man could threaten everyone’s safety simply for his vendetta. I charge for the intruder’s back facing towards me and smoothly land a high roundhouse kick with my right foot between his neck & shoulder-blades; despite my years in martial arts, I could never anticipate that Frankie would shrug off my technique so easily since he shows minimal reaction as he turns towards me. He holsters his laser-gun back into his pocket, thrusts both of his hands onto my throat, lifts me into the air with minimal effort, and turns 90 degrees to throw me onto the whiteboard without once releasing his grip. Letting out a quick gasp of pain, I then struggle for a release by hammering at the insides of his elbows to no avail; what eventually works is a left-thrust-kick aimed onto his diaphragm, taking his grip off of my throat. I spring back once landing on my feet by grabbing at his left wrist with both of my hands, spinning clockwise to twist his whole arm so his palm is facing upwards, and finishing the move with the arm in a hammerlock position with my right leg snaked in between the forearm & bicep. With Frankie hunched forward and trapped by his arm, I rein down as many blows as I’m able onto his prone back with my free right hand while my left hand secures the left-wrist into position; I almost get him to one knee, but Frankie is able to twist enough to grab my right ankle with his free right hand and pull in a powerful upward curve to send me flying to my back on the ground. Luckily, I land on my shoulder blades and continue into a backwards roll to alleviate any severe damage to my head; unluckily, Frankie has corrected his balance before I could even stand back up.

Frankie reaches back into his pocket for his gun and then points the object in my face. Fortunately, I reactively grapple his right wrist with my right hand, spin towards him so my back eventually faces his opened-up body, and back-elbow his face with my left arm. I stomp on his foot, point the gun towards the floor, and disarm him with a simple left-hand-chop; the gun drops, but as I turn to face him, Frankie lands a solid left swing at my right temple which causes me to lose balance with only the whiteboard to catch me. Frankie quickly picks up the firearm once again, reloads, and aims back at his father. 

Frankie pulls the trigger.

Utter silence. Silence, except for the sound of a body thumping onto the ground.

The head of a teenage girl falls limp onto the lap of a paralyzed Mr. Miller as the rest of her body had already landed. The right shoulder of her hoodie with an apparent scorch mark.

Once I regain my sight after the hit on my head, my heart sinks at the sight on the floor.

“SAM!!!”

Nothing else matters now except Sam and this man. My body is so full of adrenaline and insane grief that I barely feel the sprouting of black and sky-blue wings coming from my back; I’m so broken that I ignore the pain I’m supposed to be feeling from the red lines flowing from my eyes as if they were tears of blood; and the screams in my head are ringing louder than the actual screech resembling a crane coming from my own mouth. 

Frankie is too slow to react as he’s turning in my direction for I swiftly grab his right leg and pull him powerfully to the ground; the force is enough for him to sit back up in recoil once hitting his back against the floor, so I release the leg and punt kick his chest. Frankie definitely felt that kick, but something he wasn’t expecting afterwards was to be lifted from his seated position from a mini tornado forming underneath him; he’s slowly spinning without his feet touching the ground, which leaves him vulnerable enough to receive a right-crane-fist to his left eye, a left-elbow-across to the jaw, and a finale of a right-flying-axe-kick straight to his exposed forehead. The wind disappears from under Frankie as he lands already unconscious. 

My wings relax against my back as I suddenly walk to Sam, who’s still on the ground yet still conscious while she grips the scorch-mark on her shoulder; Therese is by her side and has apparently taken my sweater as a cover for pressure against the wound. As I squat to their level, I notice a cold mist flowing from my left hand; I carefully grip the back of Sam’s neck with my right hand in order to lift her closer to me to then press my cold left hand against her scorched right shoulder. After a few seconds of discomfort, Sam eventually feels relief.

Therese notices a single normal tear dropping from one of my unnaturally red eyes, so she lifts her left arm for her hand to wipe it away while she whispers, “It’s okay, Matthew. I got her.” 

I crack a smile at Therese before turning back to Sam, “Who knew you’d be the sacrificial type?”

Sam weakly chuckles, “Did I look as badass as Toph running up there?”

I respond, “No one could be as cool as Toph Beifong, but that was amazing of you, Sam.” I couldn’t hide my tears back anymore as we giggled together; I gently place her head back to the floor, stand back up, grab my backpack, and leave the room. Once I’m outside, I re-spread my wings and fly back home.

***

“Dad, I’m in front of the house. Could you please open the garage door?” I ask through the phone, sans crane-features, at the front yard once I arrive from school. I get no response through the phone, but the garage door does eventually open. I close the garage door behind me, then march through the house while avoiding confused eye-contact from both of my passing parents. They’re shouting at me, but my focus is still so clouded from the whole ordeal that just happened that I barely hear them as I’m rushing upstairs to my room. My brother went back to sleep after dropping me off earlier, but he’s walking drowsily out of his room once hearing me drop my backpack on my room floor and both of our parents have caught up to me & still yelling.

I hear Dad first, “What are you doing back home so early? And how did you get home?”

I respond, “Please, listen --”

Mom interrupts, “Why didn’t you tell us earlier that you would be coming home early? And do you know how dangerous it is to walk by yourself?”

“Mom, I need to sa --”

Mom continues, “Are you stupid? When I was in school in the Philippines, I never ditched because I knew that my education was important. Your dad was the same as well in Hawaii because he also knew about the success that came from education!”

“I do believe that my educ --” 

She still rants, “I would’ve expect this from your brother, Matthew; but I would have never thought you could have lost your common sense this much!”

Dad piggy-backs, “Do you have anything to say?”

Having enough of this berating, I explode, “LOOK AT ME!!!” However, I was expecting pressure to come on my back from crane-wings sprouting, but I didn’t feel any such sensation; instead, my fingernails grow exponentially like claws and my skin changes dramatically into more of a fur-texture with either glossy-burnt-orange or black forming. My parents are aghast even more when my eyes spontaneously turn from my normal dark-brown irises into icy-pale-blue, my breathing transforms more into a low growl, and my face contorts into an expression that they rarely see from me: anger. I continue with a bit of a growl, “Do I look like I’m okay? It’s like every time I see you, you have this overbearing aura of disappointment in you towards me, and I’m so done with all of these rants about how I’ve lost my common sense or that I’m not fulfilling things that you’ve done at your age when in fact they shouldn’t affect me since they’re in the past. You expect me to have everything together when in reality I’m still trying to learn yet you don’t listen to when I’m trying my best to please you or when I’m hurt in any way. You never fu-- you never fudging listen! YOU DON’T GIVE A CRAP ABOUT HOW I FEEL!”

Tears start flowing from my eyes, which then turn into red streaks again; the wings sprout and a small vortex of air forms around me. My whole family backs away from me in confusion as I fall to my knees and my room becomes host to utter chaos. Things get even weirder from there: the tiger-like features don’t disappear from my body as the crane-like features appear on my body; the back of my neck starts to grow a light gray hood like a cobra’s hood-feature; my tailbone extends into nine light-orange & furry tails out of nowhere; and my whole skin is doing a ripple effect where the skin is constantly switching from my normal skin to sky-blue feathers to burnt-orange fur with black stripes to light-gray scales to light-orange fur and repeating. I get on all fours as I’m struggling to breathe, then I look up to see my family screaming for me to calm down.

With my head down and eyes filled with tears, I don’t even notice my brother pressing against the wind in order to touch me nor do I seem to notice one of my large fox tails flailing through the air & whipping Kuya Daniel on his defensive right arm, leaving a long scorch mark since the tails are somehow heating up quickly. Kuya Daniel fully drops onto his butt while our parents are still shouting out of sheer desperation.

As the final tear drops from my face, I close my eyes, intake a deep breath, and straighten myself while still on my knees. My skin and the animalistic features revert to normal human form for only a second, and … 

I let out a scream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys! I hope you're enjoying reading this story, especially this newer version with shorter chapters. This is where things really kick off now, so I hope you're ready for the next chapter. Also, if you like this original story, please let your friends know of its existence and leave your [constructive] comments. Take care of yourselves, everybody!


	4. Collateral

I let out a scream.

Only, this was no ordinary scream. 

It felt like this great release of pent-up energy; it was weirdly cathartic yet strangely foreign.

The scream transforms into a great sonic wave that spreads outward like a ripple; in the times when I switch between opening & closing my eyes, I notice no physical damage happening in my room, nothing falling off of shelves or cracking. After almost a full minute of screaming, my throat exhausts itself to the point where I lose consciousness and the sonic wave drops. 

After a few minutes, I find myself straightened against my bed by Dad while Mom checks up on Kuya Daniel, who is also conscious but still reeling from the scorch mark on his right forearm. 

I groggily ask, “Is everyone okay?”

Kuya jokes, “I’m good; just a little ringing in my ears. How about you worry about yourself and whatever the fuck just happened for once?”

Mom inputs, “Language.” Kuya apologizes with a weak wave while I giggle.

Dad says, “So, what did just happen?” Immediately, everyone turns their attention back to me.

I explain, “There was an attack at school this morning, the older son of my AP Gov teacher had a weird gun. I jumped into the situation and held him off for a little bit, but he eventually got a shot off. The bullet of sorts hit a friend of mine, and I snapped; more specifically, my body transformed into the black & blue feathers and big wings you saw when I felt this deep sadness, and I took him down in a few seconds. My friend seemed okay & was taken care of by the time I finished, and I took my backpack & came home; I needed to get out of the situation.”

During and after that whole explanation, I’m met with stunned silence. Eyes bulging, breaths breaking, concern creeping onto their faces.

The silence is eventually broken when Kuya Daniel interjects, “Cool. What happened to the guy?”

“I left him unconscious on the floor of my classroom.”

“Lame.”

Dad gasps, “Woah, Fifth Commandment!”

I naturally recite, “‘Thou shall not kill.’ I know, Dad, and that’s why I didn’t do it.”

Kuya Daniel huffs, “If it was me in that situation and my friend was hurt, you bet I’m not just laying the guy out.”

During this whole conversation, Mom goes into nurse mode and has been switching between Kuya Daniel & myself to check on us. Eventually, she joins in, “Matthew, did you mean what you said?”

My head falls before sneaking a look back at her, “I was high on my emotions, so they might have clouded a few things, but short answer: every word.” Immediately, I met with a hug from her that surprises me, not only at the suddenness of it but also because my family have greeted each other lately with quick kisses on the cheek & nothing this long or as intimate.

Mom releases her hug and states, “I am your mother. You’re not going to like everything that I do or say, but you should know that everything Dad & me do are for you guys and that we do love you.”

I answer, “Mom, you really think we don’t see how hard you work for us? Both of you are amazing parents, but lately it seems you’re leaning towards the sacrificial part of love and straying away from the tenderness & support parts of love. And I’m not expecting you to change now that I’m saying this, but you should know how I feel.”

We turn to Kuya Daniel, who responds, “I know what you guys do for us, and I’m content with what you dish out because you’ve done it all my life so I’m good.”

Everyone sighs breaths of relief, but something curious occurs: as Kuya takes a deep exhale, his scorch mark heals itself and his skin clears as if nothing happened.

Mom gasps at the sight while I point out for him, “Kuya, your wound healed itself!”

He turns the subject, “Really? You’re shocked that I have healing when you somehow both transform into animals and be the Avatar with all that elements stuff?”

Dad takes his attention to Mom, “Baby, we didn’t give them these powers, right?”

I laugh a bit before answering, “As all of you know, I’m always in my head; I imagine having powers and helping people. I even have these specific powers where I can manipulate & sense emotions and I’ve categorized powers based on my emotions: Water & a Philippine cobra for Calm; Earth & a Bengal tiger for Anger; Fire & a Japanese kitsune for Joy; and Air & a Chinese crane for Sadness. However, I never thought that these would ever become a reality until today.”

Dad inputs, “You really need to work on getting to the point faster, Matthew.” The rest of us just laugh at the remark.

I continue, “Now, I think I was the one to cause Kuya to have powers; maybe it was the sonic wave that gave you the ringing in your ears that caused it.” 

Mom’s right eyebrow raises before saying, “I didn’t hear any ringing.” Dad nods in agreement.

I answer, “Maybe it just affected us, but we can’t know for sure just being here.”

Kuya Daniel asks, “Should we ask the cousins if they got powers too?”

Dad replies for me, “That might scare them. Also, most of them might still be busy.”

After a few more minutes of talking, Mom & Dad help the two of us from the floor and pull us into a big family hug, something we haven’t done in a while. Mom fills the silence, “Powers or not in this family, we all love each other. Now, Matthew, get back to school; we’re still serious about your education.”

I answer, “Okay, I understand; I really do. I’ll clean my room once I’m done with school.”

***

I fly back to school with my wings of Sadness now in control; I land in a place where not many people walk so I won’t be noticed. 11:18 AM right now, so people are leaving their classrooms now for 4th period. As I’m walking back to Mr. Miller’s class in order to intercept Sam, I notice both Mr. and Mrs. Miller being asked some questions by a single police officer; seconds later, the interview finishes and I start approaching Mr. Miller as Mrs. Miller is leaving to her own classroom.

I ask, “Hi, Mr. Miller. How is everything?”

He answers, “Thankfully, everything is fine now and every student in the class is safe, thanks to you.”

I respond, “There’s no need for that; it was just the rush of the moment. And everything just got weird during that.”

Mr Miller gives me a confused look, “Weird how?”

I’m surprised by this question, so I continue, “You don’t remember anything about wings or the classroom getting cold at one point?”

Mr. Miller shakes his head and chuckles a bit, “Nope; isn’t ringing any bells. Are you okay?”

_ Ringing.  _ I then ask, “Um, just a random thought: did you by any chance have a ringing noise going off in your ears sometime within the period?”

Mr. Miller shows concern, “Are you sure you’re okay, Matthew?”

Before I respond, Sam walks with assistance by Therese & another classmate, Alexia or Lexi, from the direction of the Nurse’s office; Sam yells out, “Matthew! I’m glad you’re okay.”

I give the three of them a huge hug before referring back to Mr. Miller, “Yes, Mr. Miller; I’m fine now. I hope things work out with your son.” Mr. Miller nods before walking back into his classroom. 

Lexi whacks at my arm, “All of that stuff earlier was brave, but it was stupid & reckless; you could’ve gotten hurt and that wouldn’t have helped Sam or anyone else.”

I squint my eyes and smirk as I respond, “I’m good, Lexi; thank you so much for your concern.”

She chuckles as she hits my arm again, “Hey, I’m happy that you’re good, but I’m just stating the obvious. Anyways, I have to get to class; I’ll see you guys later! And no flying away again.” She waves us off before walking away.

I turn to the remaining girls, “So, all three of you remember what happened when I sprouted wings and everything else?”

Therese cocks her head to the side, “Umm, it was kind of hard to miss.”

“Okay, but what about a ringing minutes after the situation here? Did the both of you hear that?” This question is answered simply by them nodding their heads. I continue, “Well, I was just talking to Mr. Miller who was obviously right there but I don’t think he remembers anything about wings or his son being tossed around by wind indoors; and when I mentioned the ringing, he looked at me like I was crazy. Also, no one else other than you two are talking to me after what just happened, so maybe certain details are out of their memory.”

We discuss this no further as Therese interrupts, “Let’s talk about this later; I have to get to ASB.”

Sam comments, “Wow: school, ASB, and Varsity Dance team; you go girl.”

Therese adds, “I also have a paid internship at Palomar hospital.”

I enter, “Damn; how’s your sleep?”

She answers, “I try. Anyways, I really need to go; I’m glad you two are okay.”

As we’re walking down the open hall, Sam realizes, “Oh, gosh! I forgot my hoodie in Mr. Miller’s class. I’ll meet you at Hale’s class, okay?” As I nod, I’m turning away when I feel a small shock on my face as Sam suddenly disappears & reappears with her hoodie at hand all within two seconds. I somehow catch her from rushing past me, and Sam becomes all dizzy while saying, “Wow, was I going too fast or was everything else going slow?”

I forcefully pull Sam to the front door of Hale’s class and start rampantly whispering, “Sam, you just ran like the Flash!”

Sam yells, “What?!” I shush her, then she continues in a whisper, “What? How is that possible?”

I respond frantically in my whisper, “Okay, this is going to sound really weird, but long story short: you being shot and the feelings coming up as I’m being yelled at by my parents earlier caused me to scream, but it turned into something like a sonic boom. I passed out for a little but when I came to, both my brother and I had superpowers.”

“Again, what?”

“You and Therse said you heard the ringing, so that means that Therese and whoever else heard the ringing also have powers.”

“Ooh, what powers, do you think Therese has?”

“I’m not sure; frankly, my powers are based on my daydreams about my emotions & obsession with Avatar: the Last Airbender, but my brother has accelerated healing but I don’t know why he has that.”

Sam is hyperventilating out of sheer confusion, so she sits down on the ground as she states, “Oh my gosh.” After a few seconds, Sam makes a sudden discovery, “Why am I suddenly so hungry now?!”

I question, “Wait, you have a faster metabolism too? I didn’t know that you wanted to be a full-fledged speedster so much.” The one-minute bell rings before I can continue, so I answer, “We’ll talk about this more later, but not here and not over the phone. I’m going to text an address to you; if I send that and when to come, do you think you can go?”

Sam responds, “I’ll try. Why do you want me to meet you somewhere?”

I state, “It’s better to speak about this in-person rather than over the phone where we can be spied on or something. And I also have a couple of friends with whom I have a hunch that they also have powers as well.”

Sam jokes, “Wow, paranoid much?”

I chuckle, “How can you not be when you’re suddenly gifted with powers with no explanation? Anyways, I’m serious about meeting.”

As we walk into our Language Arts class, Sam finally concedes, “Fine. Just text me the address and the best time for you. And if Therese and Lexi remember the incident, you should probably invite them too.” I nod in agreement before we enter Hale’s class.

***

Therese has a free 6th period, so she starts walking to her car as the final 5th period bell rings. Arriving at her car in the student parking, she opens the door behind the passenger seat to set her backpack and other things down on the chair; she closes the door and hops into the driver’s seat. After closing the door, she grips the steering wheel and takes in a deep breath; before she does anything else, her whole body is consumed by a dazzling cyan light and she catches herself outside of her car! She frantically looks at her surroundings to take in a sharp gasp, causing her to be emit the cyan light from her body again and disappear & reappear in front of her apartment door. Therese hyperventilates, not getting much better when the door in front of her is being opened slowly by her mother; Therese takes in another breath, making her disappear and reappear back in the driver’s seat of her car. Excitement overcoming her confusion, Therese replaces her labored breathing with laughter, only to disappear once again.


	5. Coming Out

Saturday, January 14th, 2017.

Yesterday, once school was done for me, I texted a few people: of course Sam, Therese, & Lexi in order to text them the address for my former Tang Soo Do studio; my master Ma’am Gomez alerting her of my arrival and need to talk; and two of my best friends from karate, Nathan and Colby. Although we haven’t talked in a while, Ma’am was gracious enough to allow me and the rest to come into the studio on a Saturday mid-morning. Kuya Daniel and I decided to walk to the studio instead of driving [or flying]; we arrive, and I wait in the parking lot while Kuya Daniel opens the door to see Ma’am already sitting at her front desk.

Once the girls arrive separately, the four of us walk into the studio together. As a greeting, I bow my whole upper body in Ma’am’s direction as I state with a smile on my face, “Hello, Ma’am.”

Ma’am had already stood up in order to hug Kuya Daniel, so she walks towards me as she’s beaming her own smile, “Hello, Matthew! It’s always great to hear from you after so long, but this request is very unexpected even for you.” Through the comment, she approaches me for a big hug that I reciprocate once I straighten myself. After a firm hug & release, Ma’am changes the subject, “And you do know that I don’t usually accept new students on the weekends.”

I turn to the girls & back to Ma’am in order to respond, “Oh! Don’t worry, they’re not here to necessarily register for classes. In fact, I need to show all of you something; I’m also waiting for Nathan and Colby to come so I can show them as well.”

“A new move or something?”

“Not exactly, but I’ll get into more details once everyone is here. Anyways, Ma’am, these are Samantha, Therese, and Alexia; classmates and great friends of mine from school; ladies, this is Ma’am Gomez, my former Tang Soo Do teacher before I quit in mid-May last year.”

Sam questions, “Wait, you said karate earlier. What is Tang Soo Do and is that different?”

I answer, “Tang Soo Do is a South Korean martial art derived from the Japanese art of karate due to the heavy emphasis on striking; Tang Soo Do prefers kicking and direct strikes as well as the use of weapons and presentations through forms.”

Lexi inputs, “No wonder you can go so low into the splits and kick so high.” She then turns to Ma’am, “Matthew is always so energetic and tends to dance a lot in school.”

Ma’am responds, “Matthew was always the energetic type, and I knew that he liked to dance as he was taking karate; still, he quickly learned how to be disciplined and be a great teacher when the time came.”

Two guys walk through the front door at this very moment, and one of them interrupts, “He taught us and also inspired our teaching styles even long after being gone from this studio.” This one smiles as he talks, but the one behind him stays silent as he glares sternly around the room.

All of us turn to the front door to spot the guys to be my best friends: the one to speak is Colby, a sociable character that’s well-rounded in life with track & field, genius-level math skills, good technology skills, and just a generally friendly disposition; the one behind him is Nathan, a hard nut to crack when it comes to emotions but evidently makes up for it with witty sarcasm, genius-level in almost everything, and killer martial artistry. Although the three of us are great friends, these two are significantly more similar to each other due to their hardcore beliefs about friendship to the point that they’re willing to kill for their friends and family, their interests in computer sciences, even their similar family dynamics since each have only one younger sibling and their parents can be complicated in their own rights.

As the two of them greet Ma’am with their own bows, I approach the closer Colby for a hug that he quickly reciprocates; I then approach Nathan for a hug, which he also quickly reciprocates. I guide them to everyone else so they can be acquainted.

I restart the conversation, “Guys, I know that it’s been a while, but just in case if you forgot: this is my older brother, Daniel; he was also in karate here, but he quit earlier than me.” The two of them bow in Kuya Daniel’s direction, then listen again as I chime back in, “Now, you don’t know these people: Samantha or Sam for short, Therese, and Alexia or Lexi.” Kuya Daniel reciprocates the bows and shakes their hands with a soft smile; both Colby & Nathan shake his hand, but Colby actually smiles while Nathan simply nods with no change of expression. The two then go one by one with introductions with the girls, expressions staying pretty much the same as with introducing themselves to Kuya Daniel. I finally state, “Okay, everyone, I would like for us to go to the floor before anything happens; and hopefully you guys are wearing active clothing.” 

All eight of us walk through the hall towards the middle of the building where we are exposed to a change in flooring from black-clean-concrete to aged-wood. Everyone except Ma’am walk to the dressing room in order to change into active clothing and set down our shoes; Ma’am instead waits on a white wooden bench until the rest of us walk onto the wooden floor. We set ourselves up in the middle of the floor in a circle formation; everyone but me sits down on the floor. 

I restart the conversation proceeding to explain to everyone about my daydreams, the Frankie Miller situation, how I retaliated, how I got home to get yelled at by my parents, the scream in retaliation to the yelling, and how I know only Kuya Daniel and Sam to have contracted superpowers so far although I do have my hunches of everyone surrounding me also have been gifted powers. 

Then, I continue, “Now, although Kuya Daniel has a general idea of my powers, I wanted to show all of you the full rundown of my powers. First of all, I’m an empath, which is a blanket term that ranges from sensing emotions people are feeling to absorbing or instilling certain emotions. For example, Kuya Daniel is generally calm since he’s heard most of this but also a sprinkle of confusion from the details; on the other hand, all of the females in this room seem to have an easy-to-read sense of confusion and bewilderment; meanwhile, Nathan & Colby have moreso excitement and curiosity.” At the mention of this, the males acknowledge the accuracy in their own ways while the females continue the expressions I’d just described. I proceed, “And onto the more exciting part: it turns out that my emotions have been … how should I say this, categorized? By the weird looks on all of your faces, I think it would be better to show you what I mean. First of all, meet Calm.” I step back from the group before inhaling deeply to allow skin slowly transforming into light-gray scales, irises turning into the same color, and tailbone extending into a slender yet large tail; I also raise my right hand with the palm up pointing towards a water bottle I left standing on the floor with the cap off, telekinetically manipulating all of the water into a singular stream. Everyone is even more freaked out, so I respond with a slight hiss behind my words, “When it comessss to these transformations, I can only transform halfway between human and animal before I lossse control. Now, what you’re seeing is a hybrid between me and a gray Philippine cobra that I have made represent my sssssense of tranquility or Calm; in addition, I’ve dreamt that thisss form can bend water.” Everyone stares at the line of water that I’m moving before eventually returning it to the water bottle; I resume by inhaling deeply, skin losing the scales in order for a burnt-orange coat of fur with intensely-black stripes to emerge. Now with a slight rasp in my voice, “Moving on, as you can see with my dark-orange fur and icy-blue eyes, I am now a hybrid of human and a Bengal tiger that bends earth in order to represent Anger and its sub-emotions;” I proceed to extend my left arm towards the slightly-open garage doors in order to telekinetically move & merge some small rocks into a singular mass and then drop it in the middle of the circle. Without further explanation, another exhale makes my burnt-orange fur lighten into a very light-orange hue and nine tails to appear from my tailbone; “This new form with the light-orange aesthetic in fur and eyes represents the hybrid of human and a kitsune or mythical Japanese fox personifying my Joy and its own sub-emotions. There have been many myths involving many types of kitsune, but I’ve chosen a kitsune that manipulates fire among a few other abilities generally linked to most kitsunes;” the group is then bewildered by me descending into a kneeling position to then point my head upwards in order to direct a fire-breath upwards without burning the wooden ceiling above us. Finally, I stand up and exhale another time so that my fur can be substituted for patterns of black & sky-blue feathers along with red sclera & red lines flowing down my face similar to tears; “My last form is this hybrid between human and a Chinese crane that can manipulate Wind in order to represent Sadness but also constitutes sympathy & understanding. In addition, since I consider this my main form, I have the sub-ability to combine any one of my previously mentioned elements with Wind: Water combines to produce Ice, Earth combines to produce Crystal, and Fire combines to produce Scorched Air.” 

Everyone now have their faces painted with confusion, so Sam is the first to ask questions, “Why is Sadness considered your main emotion? You always seem so happy everyday in school.”

Therese answers for me,  “Looks can be deceiving, Sam.” 

I go no further in that subject but rather redirect, “I don’t even know if all of you have powers because of me or if at all, but I felt as though I can trust you with this secret; however, it might turn out that superpowers are really just reflections of some part of ourselves, whether it’d be our personalities or needs in life or even consistent thoughts. So, does anyone have any questions or comments before we move on?”

Kuya Daniel comments, “So, you’re basically a combo of Beast Boy from Teen Titans and Aang from Avatar.”

Sam says, “Also Raven since she has to control her emotions or else she unlocks new powers but also she becomes more evil.”

Lexi inputs, “Sounds like a terrible way to live, even for a fictional character.”

Nathan inputs, “With the kekkei genkai aspect from Naruto also in there cause of the whole combination of elements thing.”

Colby adds, still in a state of bewilderment, “Badass.”

With a smile on my face, I answer all of them, “Pretty much. Anyways, enough about me; now is the time for anyone else to show and tell.”

Before I sit down from speaking, Kuya Daniel casually walks up to me only to grab at my left index finger with his right hand and cut his left arm with my fingernail. Everyone gasps as blood starts to appear, and the gasps only continue as the cut immediately heals to the point of clear skin in a matter of seconds. Kuya Daniel speaks upon it, “My life has been filled with needing to have tough skin or adapt to things from playing sports to working things out with friends to getting jobs to taking care of this schmuck; so, I guess my power ended up being a Healing factor, so I’m basically Deadpool or Wolverine. But I also found something else: I was watching last night’s Cavaliers game in my room, and when LeBron James came up on the screen to play, this happened;” Kuya Daniel then closes his eyes and concentrates as his body suddenly transforms into the full resemblance of LeBron James. Surprise falls upon the room as he continues, “Although I can do this, I’m not completely sure how I’m doing it and I can’t even imitate his voice.”

Colby reassures Kuya Daniel, “Dude, any form of Shapeshifting is awesome! You can literally become anyone, and you’ll eventually learn how to imitate people’s voices with practice.”

Nathan reflects Colby, “Badass.”

Kuya Daniel eventually transforms back to normal and sits, while Sam is the next to stand & speak, “I think I have this just because I love the Flash and right now I’m just as scared as Matthew when it comes to driving.” Sam proceeds to run in a big circle around our small circle at super-speed with yellow-lightning illuminating behind her. After Sam stops in her tracks, everyone starts to clap; however, Colby is only chuckling.

Noticing this, I turn to him, “You don’t seem as excited as everyone else at that.”

Colby responds, “Well, that’s because I’ve already seen it, or at least a version of it.” Colby jumps up and starts exhibiting his own Super-Speed but his version has silver streaks of wind following his every move. Everyone, including Sam, clap for Colby, who then says as he’s running, “And that’s not all!” Colby darts to me and runs around me in a counterclockwise circle, producing wind underneath my feet that lifts me into the air.

As I’m laughing at the experience, Nathan stands from his spot and explains, “As you can see, Colby not only has his own brand of Super-Speed but also his own version of Air Manipulation.”

As Colby slows down in order for me to descend, I ask, “Did you know about his powers?”

Nathan responds, “I was the first one he told; he was totally freaking.”

Colby stops in his tracks and defends himself, “I did not freak out! Much.” Nathan and I just laugh at this statement.

Kuya Daniel inputs, “So, what can you do, Nathan?”

Nathan doesn’t say a word, but rather simply snaps his fingers; the whole group and I are surprised when Kuya Daniel is suddenly turned into a large teddy bear! I shout with a slight laugh, “Nathan!” Nathan laughs as well, then snaps his fingers again in order to turn Kuya Daniel back to normal.

Kuya Daniel stomps in Nathan’s direction, “Why, you little --” but he stops in his tracks in amazement as Nathan snaps his fingers again in order to transform the whole environment from a karate studio into a lush jungle! All of us stand from where we are and observe the surroundings; however, the experience turns dangerous as a black panther perched on a nearby tree is stalking us. The panther pounces from its branch in our direction, but Nathan snaps his fingers once again to change the surroundings back to the karate studio.

As we’re all catching our breaths from the sight, Nathan finally speaks on the matter, “Basically, I have the blanket powers of Reality, Mind, and Space Manipulation. I’m still learning of my full capabilities since I don’t want to break nature itself, but so far I’ve learned I can transmute things into completely different objects, read minds which I accidentally did by hearing my little sister singing in her head, create portals or just straight-up teleport, and even this.” Then, Nathan points his right hand towards the floor and slowly twists his open hand in a counterclockwise motion, which then causes everyone on the wooden floor to float! With everyone but Ma’am levitating off the ground, we proceed to play around a bit with flips or interactions with each other. After a few minutes, Nathan stops the anti-gravity by pointing his right hand back towards the floor and twisting his hand in a clockwise motion.

Therese volunteers herself up next as she stands, “Well, you’re not the only one that can teleport.” She takes in a deep breath, and expels it the same moment her whole body is covered in this cyan flash; the flash disappears along with her body, only for her to reappear in one of the corners of the studio. She performs this technique multiple times, teleporting herself from the corner to midair just above the group then next to Ma’am and eventually back into her sitting position of the circle.

Finally, with so much as a word yet, Lexi pushes off the ground from her seating position, gravity doing nothing against her as she’s effortlessly levitating a few feet well off the ground. “I don’t have any majestic wings, but being a Flyer in the Varsity Cheer Squad has definitely gotten me accustomed to the air.” She swings her leg behind her, only to kick powerfully forwards as momentum for a twisting flip as she eventually brings herself to the ground.

Colby restarts the conversation, “So, now that we know that we have powers, what do we do?”

I turn and walk in Ma’am’s direction in order to indirectly answer, “That’s why we’re here: Ma’am, you are one of the most trustworthy and supportive people I know; I know that this may be a heavy burden on you, but I was wondering if we can use the karate studio as a place to train in secret since I can’t think of anywhere else with the space, materials, & trust to go for a situation like this at the moment.”

Ma’am walks onto the wooden floor then places her left hand on my right shoulder as she answers, “Of course, Matthew.” Everyone is cheering and smiling, but Ma’am suddenly turns dead serious, “But, any damages to the studio will either be cleaned or paid for, do you understand?”

I nervously smile and shakily respond, “Of course, Ma’am.”

Ma’am scarily transitions into a big smile, “Great! Anyways, you guys have fun; I’ll be back at my desk.” She bows off of the wooden floor and walks away without another word. Everyone sighes silently in relief.

I turn back to the group, “To add to my answer, Colby, we need to hone our skills to better hide them in public and to use them most effectively if highly necessary; also, this place doesn’t have a camera or security circulating through it, so it’s secure from curious eyes. Besides, this place is very spacious and well-equipped with weapons if any of us want to use them.”

Kuya Daniel interrupts, “Why are you making all of this sound like a superhero TV show where we become some kind of crime-fighting team?”

Nathan interjects, “Because that’s exactly what he wants to do.” Everyone but him, Colby, and myself visibly react in surprise at the statement, while Colby and I just snicker at how easily Nathan figured that out.

I continue in response to these reactions, “Think about all the lives we can save, the justice we can serve. We don’t need to start by stopping an intergalactic menace on the first mission like the Avengers, but we can build up to that by training.”

Kuya Daniel starts laughing, to which Therese questions, “Why are you laughing at that?”

Kuya Daniel answers, “It looks like you don’t know Matthew well enough to know that he would totally do something like this. That’s how much of a bleeding heart he is.” I nudge him on his arm with my elbow due to how cute the response was, only to be replied with a ‘playful’ punch on my bicep. As I tend to my now numb arm, the girls soften her facial expressions as they start understanding Kuya Daniel’s analysis.

Colby suddenly chimes in, “Well, I’m definitely in. What about you, Nathan?”

Nathan responds, “Definitely.”

Kuya Daniel inputs, “Well, as much as I would like to because of how cool it could be, I already got college and 2 jobs to worry about.”

Therese raises her hand, “You already know my schedule, plus the Varsity Dance Team is going to double up on practices as spring comes closer since we have Nationals in the spring.”

Lexi adds, “I’m in a similar position with Varsity Cheer Squad.”

I follow up, “That’s okay; at least you’re honest about your availability. Still, when you can, please come train with us so you can learn to control your powers.”

While everyone nods, Sam adds in her two cents, “I love all of this, but I don’t want to slow you guys down because I don’t have much fighting experience, let alone how to fight at super speed.”

Colby answers, “Don’t worry, Sam; besides being black belts, we are also teachers, so we can definitely work with you on defending yourself. Besides, I also need to get used to fighting at super speed, so we can learn together.” Sam finds comfort in this, so she smiles and nods in approval at the proposition.

With all of that out there, I finalize things, “Okay, everyone; it’s only morning, so let’s start training!”


	6. Jack

Monday, January 16th, 2017.

Sam and I are in Language Arts right now in which the class is independently working on a vocabulary packet. Well, at least most of us are working while most of the guys in the Varsity Football team are throwing paper airplanes & chatting with each other; it’s surprising how Mrs. Hale hasn’t caught onto them yet. As we’re working, one of the thrown airplanes hits the back of my head; as the players silently laugh and celebrate, I hide a growl and stop myself from standing up from my desk to claw the face of whoever threw that plane. I instead turn my body in their direction in order to see them in-sincerely apologize; as my eyes meet the group, I’m a little surprised at the sight of Jack hitting his teammates’ shoulders for them to work, glancing at me apologetically, and resuming promptly back to his work. My face eventually calms down, and after a few seconds I look down back at my work only to feel my phone vibrate in my pocket.

I glance at Mrs. Hale to see her grading papers, so I pull out my phone to see a text by Jack: “Sorry about them. Are you okay?”

“We should be working, not texting, Jack. And why are you apologizing for them?”

“I know we should be. I just wanted to immediately apologize since I know first-hand how obnoxious they can be. It can be hilarious at times, but not at your or the class’s expense.”

I chuckle by myself, “It’s okay. I had this class with them last semester as well, so I also know first-hand how they can be. Honestly, I’m surprised that you’re not going more to their defense by denying that they did anything since they’re your teammates.”

I suddenly hear a slight chuckle in the class before I receive the next text: “They’re my teammates, but sometimes they need to settle down a bit. Lol.” After a few seconds, I receive another text, “Hey, Matt. Are you able to talk after class? I need to tell you something.”

_ Random change to the conversation, but this sounds serious. _ “Sure. Do you want to meet somewhere or do you want to walk out together?”

Before I could get an answer, the bell releasing us for lunch finally rings, so everyone becomes frantic to pack and get out of class. Jack is done packing before me; before he can approach me to answer the text in person, he’s suddenly dragged by his teammates to the door to come out for lunch. Once I finish my packing, I glance up to see Jack already out of the class, then I glance down to my phone to see no text-response from him. Sam already left, so I’m alone as the last one getting out of the classroom and saying goodbye to Mrs. Hale.

I turn my head to the right to see those same football players gathered in a group with fellow seniors at the designated Senior Wall area; however, I don’t see Jack within that group.  _ Hmm, he hasn’t told me where to meet. I guess I’ll just hang out in the library for a bit then eat later. _ I turn right, past the large group in order to walk in the library’s direction; I start approaching the wind-tunnel at the 300 building, only to feel a sudden pressure around my right wrist. I look down at it, seeing nothing there and yet it feels like something’s wrapping around my wrist. Then, the pressure becomes a sudden jerk forward, causing my whole body to trip forward! The jerk is continuously moving, so I’m just aimlessly following my arm as I’m being pulled forward through the wind-tunnel then left into the men’s restroom. I fortunately feel the pressure release from my wrist after a few seconds, but this sense of relief is quickly replaced with shock once Jack suddenly materializes in front of me!

I reflexively try to shout in surprise, but Jack lunges forward to cover my mouth before any sound is produced. When he notices my eyes turn from surprise to annoyance, Jack asks, “If I remove my hand, do you promise not to shout?” I soften my face and nod my head slowly, so he slowly removes his hand from my lips. He continues, “I’m sorry; I wanted to text you that we can walk out of Hale’s together, but I was pulled away before I could. I was able to escape them, but I noticed you coming in my direction so I decided to pull you here to somewhere private.”

I interrupt, “Jack, please breathe then tell me what you wanted to say.”

Jack takes in a deep inhale, then restarts, “You keep on saying how I was so nice to you in middle school, but you were always nice to me too then and now. Even then, I knew that you were trustworthy in hearing anything, so you are the first one to hear about this from me:” he takes another deep breath before coming to a conclusion, “I have Invisibility.”

I calmly ask, “When did you figure this out?”

“I discovered it after school last Frid -- Wait, why are you the calmer one about this right now?” To respond, I fold my hands in prayer formation together to then open them, forming a levitating icicle from my hands. As his breath becomes cooler, Jack is the one to be shocked, “Oh God.”

“Yeah. Last Friday, a mix of things put me in distress and made me scream that somehow became a sonic-wave that gave superpowers presumably to younger people with whom I have a strong connection. I only know of a select few at the moment, and now that includes you.” With his mouth still wide open and eyes in shock, I tell Jack, “From what I’ve noticed, the superpowers that have appeared reflect either a person’s personality, needs, or desires in life. Why would you out of all people have the power of Invisibility?”

“Well, I actually do enjoy being by myself most of the time; however, football comes with a lot of exposure from both high school and college level peoples, so there are times in my life where I just want to be invisible.”

“I presume that that type of exposure comes with the territory of football, no matter the level or league. Besides, you seem very passionate about it.”

“I am, and I have been ever since I was little; still, it’s nice to talk to a friend or just reflect, you know, instead of always being on the field in that rush and always being required to look impressive.”

“Well, I now understand where you’re coming from now that you’ve told me, and I just want you to know that you have me if you ever need to talk about anything.”

“Thanks, big dog; that’s great, coming from you. Anyways, how did you get your powers? And why ice?”

“Um, the thing is, I’m not completely sure myself how I got these powers. I love comics & platforms based on comics and I daydream about superpowers & helping people, but I never thought that I would actually contract powers, let alone the specific ones that I daydream about. And actually, my full set of powers so far are empathy, animalian shapeshifting, and elemental manipulation; although there are specifics to them that I can’t show here.”

“Could you show me sometime?”

“I’ll do you one better: I’ll text you an address for you to come and see me & a few others. We’ve been trying to train, so you can definitely come along and train with us in order to hone your powers; especially since the football season is over, hopefully you have time to work on your invisibility and talk more about the situation. However, for now, just wait for me to text you a time and address, okay?”

He answers, “Cool. I’ll see you then.” He comes in for a huge hug, which I reciprocate. He continues while in the hug, “It’s great to know that we’re not alone in this; that we have each other.”

I respond as we release, “I feel the same way, especially knowing that I might have caused a whole lot of trouble now that people may have powers. Anyways, see you soon, good sir!”

Jack chuckles, “See you soon, buddy.”


	7. New Recruit

Monday, January 16th, 2017.

I yell out in the open air, “Hi, family. I’m going to the karate studio to train with friends!”

Dad yells back from the computer room, “Okay! Be careful!”

Mom also yells from the computer room, “Be home before 8!”

I respond, “Will do!” Kuya Daniel is working right now, so I’m just walking to the studio since he can’t drive me there.

After about a 10 minute walk, I finally arrive to see Colby and Nathan’s cars already here. Suddenly, I see a car approaching the parking lot and park rather smoothly; once powered down, the car door opens to expose Jack. I say with surprise, “You’re early.”

He replies, “Well, I finished my immediate homework at home, and I’ve been excited for this ever since lunchtime, so I couldn’t wait any longer. Also, I know you enough to think to come early since you pretty much come early to Hale’s class.”

“Astute observation. Anyways, welcome to my old karate studio; now, follow my lead, and you will come out of the first day alive.” 

A light chuckle comes before it’s silenced by my stare, to which he responds, “Wait, you’re serious?”

“With the two guys I’m about to introduce you to, all I can say is that I can only do so much.” Jack smiles nervously as I open the door to the studio. I transition in order to bow to Ma’am, who is sitting at her front desk, “Hello, Ma’am! How are you doing today?”

Ma’am stands up from her seat in order to say, “I’m good, Matthew. However, you didn’t mention that you were bringing someone here today in one of your ‘scheduled practice days.’”

I respond once I straighten myself, “Oh, sorry for the lack of communication. This is Jack, a great friend of mine and one of the ‘cursed ones.’”

While Jack only directs a nervous look in my direction, Ma’am laughs and continues, “Well, okay then. I’m glad to have you on board, Jack.” Ma’am then brings up her right arm for a handshake.

Jack returns the gesture, “It’s nice to meet you, Ma’am.”

I end the conversation, “Well, we’ll be on the floor, Ma’am. Thank you so much again for all of this!”

Ma’am replies, “Don’t worry, Matthew; Nathan and Colby are already back there, so you four can go ahead and start whenever you want.” Jack and I exit the front room and walk into the main area with the wooden floor to see Colby already on the floor, sharpening a weapon that I’ve never seen before.

As we’re walking, I turn my head to Jack, “Hey, so the dressing rooms and some cubbies are just around that corner. Go ahead and take off your shoes & socks and place them there, okay?” Jack nods and walks away, while I place my shoes & socks underneath the white wooden benches to then walk over to Colby, “Hey, Colby!”

Colby notices me and then Jack in the corner of his eye, then stops working on his weapon to step closer to me, “Who is that, why does he look familiar, and why is he here?”

I reply, “One, friend  named Jack; two, he’s the Varsity quarterback at Mission Hills and has played against San Marcos High multiple times; and three, also contracted powers.”

Colby asks, “Cool. What’s his power?”

I divert, “He can demonstrate it for you and Nathan later. Moving on, what is that weapon you’re working on?”

Colby raises the long chain and medium-sized sickle that are in his hands as he answers, “This beaut? This is a kusarigama, a kama or sickle that’s connected to a long chain that’s weighted at the end. One of the perks of having a friend that can make your wildest dreams become real, am I right?”

I nod in approval, “Nice. Speaking of Nathan, where is he?”

Colby immediately has a moment of realization, “Frick. Are you sure it’s safe to leave your friend in the dressing room alone?”

I express a confused look at first, but the realization suddenly comes in the moment that I hear a large thud coming from the dressing room. Colby and I quickly move to peek inside the dressing room to find Jack with both arms in the air as his back is pressed against cubbies by a wooden stick pointing a few inches from his neck.

At the other end of the stick, Nathan yells, “Who the fuck are you?!”

Colby and I run to the dressing room and I tell Nathan, “Nathan, he’s with me and he’s fine. This is Jack and he’s also superpowered.”

Nathan, eyes still glued onto Jack’s still with aggressive intent, “How do we know he’s not just taking advantage of you or lying?” His question is quickly answered when Jack suddenly disappears as an invisible force; Nathan softens his face at the sight and lowers his bo staff so that Jack could transform back to visibility in peace.

Jack answers with major seriousness in his eyes, “I would never hurt Matthew.” Nathan scoffs, then leaves to the wooden floor.

Colby breaks the awkward silence by extending his right arm, “Hi, I’m Colby, also a friend of Matthew. Basically, I got Super Speed and Wind Manipulation; Nathan over there has Reality, Mind, & Space Manipulation. It’s nice to meet you, Invisibility.”

Jack reciprocates the handshake, “It’s nice to meet you as well, Colby.”

Colby suddenly tightens his grip and leans closer to Jack for a whisper, “It won’t be so nice if you ever mess with Nathan, me, or especially Matthew. Got it?”

_ Oh my freaking God. Why’d it have to come to this?  _ I’m thinking as my eyes roll and my head droops at the awkward tension.

Jack, with clear conviction, says, “100%.” Colby nods at the response then at me, and finally proceeds back to the floor. Once the two of us are alone, Jack sighes, “You weren’t kidding when you said they were intense.”

I reply, “I rarely do when it comes to them; both are highly protective and can be ruthless, but they soften up when you get to know them. Anyways, ready to train?”

Jack responds, “Sure.” 

The two of us walk back onto the wooden floor, Nathan & Colby already waiting for us. I start the group conversation, “Anyways, my brother is working tonight and the girls said they have their own school stuff to take care of, so it will be just us tonight. All four of us will warm up & stretch and I’ll be telling Jack the details leading up to now, then the three of us will spar while he watches. And from now on, we can all input in his training so there’s a sense of communication & connection between all of us. Is everyone good?” Everyone nods in my direction, then we go separate ways in short distances; Jack & I sit down on the floor and I start to tell him the whole story from what happened in Mr. Miller’s class last Friday up to now.

After absorbing all of this information, Jack simply responds, “Wow, and I thought my life was hectic.”

I start sarcastically, “Gee, thanks.” I transition promptly, “Anyways, let’s get up now so you can see us do our thing. And don’t worry, I won’t be as hard with you, yet.”

Jack gives off a nervous chuckle, “Wait, what?”

I redirect, “Could you just sit on the bench, please?” Jack shrugs his shoulders and walks over to the benches; I turn my attention to Nathan and Colby, “Guys, Jack and I are done talking. Are you ready?”

Nathan acknowledges, “Yep.”

Colby inputs before we start, “Powers or no powers? And weapons or not?”

I answer, “Let’s go with powers, but no weapons.”

The three of us bow to each other, clap each other’s hands out of respect, and begin. I make the first move by quickly transforming into the ¼ version of human-Joy with the orange-eyes, nine light-orange tails, my skin stays un-furred, & even small fox ears; I immediately fall into a defensive fighting stance, forcing Nathan & Colby to fall into their own stances. I follow up by spinning towards Colby, attempting to hit him at torso-level with any one of the tails; each attempt at a hit is futile, as Colby dodges each blow with amazing speed. Once back fully away from my tail range, Colby proceeds to run in a tight circle around me, trapping me in a vortex of blurred silver lines and wind; taking a wild swing at him despite his speed, I perform a right spinning-hook kick to the border of the vortex, but I’m left spinning onto Colby’s more-momentous clockwise-running. Colby is about to throw a punch onto me, but he’s stopped when a section of the floor under us starts to rise and slowly encloses into a sphere midair. Once Colby falls onto me, both of us turn our attention to Nathan, who’s been hanging out to the side so far and whose hands are palms-up in tiger-claw formation & slowly closing into fists.

Colby yells, “Seriously, Nathan?!”

I yell, “Boy, you better fix the floor later!” The two comments make Jack laugh.

Nathan chuckles, “Don’t worry. Geez, you two are no fun.”

I instinctively grab at Colby’s T-shirt collar and we jump out of the levitating sphere before the hole at the top could enclose on us. I then spin through the air and use that momentum to throw Colby at Nathan, so Nathan quickly drops his hold on the wooden sphere to execute a left jumping-spinning-hook kick on the approaching Colby; luckily, Colby’s own sped-up reflexes allow him to successfully dive-roll through the air & onto the wooden floor directly under Nathan. Once Colby corrects his balance, he turns to the now-landed Nathan to spot me prepping a fireball in my hands; I project the fire from my hands, but Nathan dodges to his left while Colby runs up then left upon the wall at super speed. I spot Nathan charging towards me out of the corner of my right eye, so I prep another fireball in my hands; however, before I can throw it, the fire suddenly dissipates when my hands cannot stay steady in order to catch myself as Nathan had just changed the section of floor underneath me into mud. I frantically throw a right open-palm-strike towards his face in order to stop his direct charge, but Nathan simply ducks my strike, grabs that wrist with his right hand, and then knees my stomach with his right leg. As I ache in pain, Colby charges in with a left flying-side-kick onto Nathan’s middle back, causing Nathan to release his grip on my right wrist; before I can fall forward to relax from the pain in my abdomen, Colby swiftly lands a few punches on my open torso. Colby momentarily stops his onslaught to prep for a more powerful right cross-punch, his telegraph gives me opportunity to wrap one of my tails around his abdomen while I finally release my feet from the mud to then turn 180 degrees & fall into a forward roll; Colby whiplashes forward and flips through the air before landing on the ground onto his back. I release the tail to backwards-roll and put myself in a dominant position over Colby in order to attempt a double-open-palm-strike onto him; my attack is quickly foiled again when I suddenly feel an increase in gravitational pressure on my back and I fully fall onto Colby. Both of us are writhing in pain due to being in the specific section that Nathan is making an increase in gravity.

Jack reflexively stands from the bench and attempts to enter the wooden floor, but Nathan turns his head towards Jack and hisses, “Don’t even think about it. Besides, we can handle each other.”

Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, I can slightly lift my head to show my face as Nathan returns his attention back to us. Once stealing a quick glance into my eyes, Nathan’s field of vision is suddenly being tricked into thinking that he’s in a dry desert which also includes me making the atmosphere copy the heat & dryness of a desert in his mind; Nathan starts profusely sweating and feeling fatigued, eventually forcing him to release the gravity and fall to his knees. I cartwheel off of Colby and attempt to use the momentum for a low right-front-kick onto my prone friend; however, Colby quickly recuperates by getting up to his knees and leaning away from the kick towards his left. Colby then swipes at the front of my standing left ankle, dropping me into a right-forward splits.

Jack instantly grimaces in pain at the sight, but then transitions into cheering. The cheering kicks Nathan out of his trance, who notices Colby charging in his direction; Nathan defends himself without powers, effectively blocking most of Colby’s regular-speed blows. Colby puts an exclamation on his onslaught by performing a right-spinning-hook kick to Nathan’s face, but he doesn’t expect Nathan to use the momentum from being kicked to spin into his own spinning hook kick with his left foot on Colby’s face! Both spin and fall to the floor in rather grand fashion, both grimacing at the pain. With both of them parallel from each other, I simply stand from my splits and transform from my ¼ human-Joy into a ⅛ version of human-Anger where I only have the icy-blue eyes and increased strength & reflexes; I walk over to them and pick them up by their shirt collars with my hands positioned in tiger-claws. Once standing, the two of them reflectively swipe at the insides of my wrists outwards and spin into double spinning-back-kicks with Colby’s left foot and Nathan’s right foot. The tandem moves send me flying backwards a little bit off the air, but Jack swiftly stands & catches my flying body before I can hit the wall.

With me back in human form, Jack gently sets me down on the wooden floor, now pissed. He stomps towards Nathan & Colby, so Nathan reflexively preps a left punch; Colby immediately grabs at Nathan’s wrist, much to Nathan’s surprise, and twists the arm into a standing hammerlock. Jack sees this as an opportunity to punch Nathan, but Colby moves in-between the two of them while still holding onto Nathan’s wrist and left-front-snap-kicks Jack’s right hand into the air. Finally, Colby lets go of Nathan’s wrist, positions himself in-between the two, and points his arms in each direction with both hands expelling air in order to repel the two even further from each other; Jack is shielding his face with his arms while Nathan takes the force with his chest out.

Colby argues, “Look, I know you two just met so the trust isn’t immediate, but you two need to knock it off if we’re going to be training together or else you guys’ll kill each other.”

Nathan huffs in frustration, never taking his eyes off of Jack; Jack’s eyes stay angry at first, but eventually look down not in fear of Nathan’s capabilities but in acceptance of Colby’s logic. Suddenly, both straighten their backs as they feel as though a weight is being lifted off their shoulders; then, all three of them look as almost-invisible wavelengths are leaving the two of their bodies and moving towards my now extended right hand.

Jack asks, “What did you just do, Matthew?”

I answer, “I just took a little bit of both of your anger, to take the edge off of the situation and to give you two clearer minds.” I then drop my arm and stand up in order to walk next to Colby, “Colby is right. Nathan, you don’t need to trust Jack now, or ever if you want, but I need you to trust me like I know you always have; Jack, I’ve known these two for so long and I know their capabilities, so you don’t need to worry about me when it comes to them.”

Their bodies now less tensed, both Nathan & Jack look at me and nod in approval, then look at each other only to swiftly look away.

I exclaim confidently, “Alright, you guys; let’s start training, shall we?”

***

After a long couple of hours, Nathan, Colby, and I were able to teach Jack a comfortable fighting stance for him, the difference between offensive & defensive fighting, and some basic hand movements like punches and blocks. As a quarterback, Jack is very adept in using his hands while being quick on his feet, so the three of us decided from this first session that Jack should focus on hand-dependent fighting styles like boxing & wrestling.

With the session over, the four of us start packing our stuff while talking amongst ourselves. During this, Jack proposes, “Hey, so since you guys showed me what you guys can do, I would like to return the favor: although the official season is over, there is a charity game at Mission Hills against San Marcos High this Friday at around 7. You don’t have to cheer for me, but I hope you guys can come so you can observe for a fighting style by the way I maneuver, or at least there could be a growing respect once you see what I’m adept in.”

I answer, “Sure!”

Colby responds, “I’ll try.”

Nathan mutters, “No promises.”

The four of us pack up our things and go our separate ways. Once I arrive home from the walk, I put my stuff down, set up clean clothes on my bed, take my dirty clothes off my body & into the laundry, then hop into the shower. As I’m soaking my hair, a smile suddenly creeps on my face; the smile transitions into a silent laugh as I’m daydreaming my friends together, fighting alongside one another.


	8. Friday Night Lights and Fights

The rest of the week was gruesome with balancing schoolwork and training. Sam was able to come to a few days in the week and was able to see Jack in action in the few days that he came as well. Both Therese and Lexi were busy practicing or preparing stuff for the game this Friday, so they couldn’t really come this week. Kuya Daniel came the least amount of all of us but instantly hit it off with Jack since they knew each other before this whole powers incident; It was nice to know that one of my best friends was so tight with my brother, but it got annoying when they distracted each other with sports-talk. Anyways, Kuya Daniel quickly brushed up on his old karate magic since he’s already active, and he has more of an offensive approach to fighting compared to my usually-defensive style. On the other hand, Sam couldn’t even form a proper fist on the first training, but she eventually got the hang of the overall concept of fighting after a few hours; with her super-speed, we decided for now that Sam will adopt a hit-&-run fighting style which will focus more on strikes than grappling. In fact, one day when we were training together, she ran a few laps in a circle and ended with a wound-up punch to my face; she was super apologetic in the moment, but I reassured that she was amazing and I was able to quickly heal the bruise with healing water thanks to Calm.

Friday, January 20, 2017.

The school day was finally over for me, so I waited to be picked up by Dad and went home to do as much homework as I could before tonight. I’ve never been to a single football game in my whole high school career; however, this was different knowing that Jack asked and it’s somehow made me excited to go. Kuya Daniel has work again tonight and Sam possesses the same amount of school spirit I have [which is little to be clear] but prioritizes video games over the game. Colby & Nathan are picking me up from my house and then we’ll be sitting together on the home side. 

The two of them arrive at my house at 6, then we leave at 6:15 in order for us to arrive at the school around 6:30; the game doesn’t start until 7, but we wanted to get good seats and not encounter so much traffic, both foot and car. Settling down in our seats, all we can do is breathe in the pre-game atmosphere with the crowd building and lights flashing, or look at our phones since that’s what the other two are doing. 

Before the game starts, Jack spots us and immediately comes over to where we are sitting; he then exclaims, “You guys came!”

Nathan inputs, “Don’t get used to it.”

Colby adds, “How are you already sweating?”

_ Sometimes these two make me want to hit my forehead out of sheer embarrassment. _

Jack answers, “I’d expect nothing less from you, Nathan. And it’s actually just water, Colby.”

I intervene, “Anyways, good luck! Go get ‘em!” I then push Jack away just as his team is motioning for him to come; as Jack is running to them, I notice some of his teammates are giving the three of us stank-faces.

Nathan notices this as well and asks, “What’s their problem?”

Colby catches on and adds, “Yeah. Can they somehow smell that we don’t go to this school?”

I input, “That makes sense for you two, but then why are they looking at me like that too? Maybe ‘cause they don’t see me in the crowd often?” The two of them simply shrug and sit back down, so I silently sit back down as well.

***

A minute remaining in the 2nd quarter, and everyone on both sides of the stadium are cheering explosively. Mission Hills, 21; San Marcos, 14. The clock finally winds down to zero, and both teams jog to their respective benches for their coaches to discuss strategies. 

Everyone sits down as the Varsity Cheer squad is about to perform on the turf, but a voice only familiar to me booms from behind me, “YOU!” I turn towards the source to see, but my vision doesn’t become clear by the time the source of the voice grabs at my sweater-collar and pulls me into a standing position. Both Nathan and Colby stand into fighting stances, but they clench their fists harder when they realize that they could cause an even bigger scene. 

I exclaim as the figure’s hands approach my throat, “JOHN?! What the heck are you doing?”

John continues to walk and grasp, so all I can do is walk backwards with him and listen as he says, “You did this to me! You made me a freak!”

Confused, I ask, “What are you talking about? I didn’t do anything to you!”

Angry, John continues to walk even onto the field as people in the crowd start looking at the confrontation, “Really? Who else do you think could make me into this?!” He then releases his right hand from my collar in order to flick it open palm-up, spontaneously producing a flame from his hand! Nathan, Colby, and I are all in collective shock, but what’s more problematic than the flame itself is people in the crowd close to us pulling out their phones while the cheer squad & everyone else in the stadium start looking over at us as well. John then continues to spout, “And I’m not even the only one that you’ve ruined!” Almost on cue, two other guys named Rynon & Allan emerge from the crowd and forcefully walk down the stairs towards us. 

Jack is closer and faster than Rynon & Allan, so he’s able to reach us and yell at John, “Let him go!” Jack grips John’s right wrist, but John quickly pulls away, causing both Jack to fall to the ground and John to make the flame in his hand form into a vertical column shooting upwards. This sight makes people on both sides of the stadium to panic & start running or stay & record the altercation. 

Rynon & Allan finally reach the ground, but they are momentarily stopped by Nathan & Colby pulling at their arms; this interaction is quick, however, as John’s friends suddenly sucker-punch my friends and continue with their advances to John and myself. As they’re walking, Rynon starts to bend water from thin air while Allan bends the track’s earth to cover his hands in fists.

After a few seconds of struggling, I finally grip John’s left wrist then spin clockwise under his arm so John is forced to be flipped. He quickly recuperates once his friends are behind him, and my mindset turns out:  _ These three used to be my friends; well, technically, friends of friends. We were never buddies, but I never thought these three were capable of such attitudes with or without powers. _ Then, I notice something strange: all three of them usually have dark-brown irises in their eyes; for some reason, all of their eyes are glowing a brilliant lime-green color.

Jack, Nathan, Colby, Therese, and Lexi all run up next to me while Rynon & Allan run up next to John, who opens both hands to make new flames. I quickly order, “Jack,Therese, Lexi: evacuate people. Colby, move these three to the opposite end of the field. Nathan, cut all cameras & cell phones in the area and make them evacuate if they’re not cooperating; then help Colby move these three when you’re done. If they want a fight, then we’ll need space.” 

Everyone responds simultaneously, “Got it.” Jack runs over to the visitors’ side to plead for them to evacuate, Therese does the same with the home side, Nathan simply snaps his fingers and all cameras shut down as well as people forget about the powers so they simply focus on evacuating, and Colby first moves John & Allan to the other side of the field with the scoreboard at super-speeds while Nathan eventually catches up by teleporting Rynon to his friends.

Before jumping to her task, Lexi comes up to my side, “Are you sure you can handle this? I don’t want you to get stupid and emotional again.”

I respond, “I won’t be stupid this time, but I do need to be emotional for my powers to work.” Lexi rolls her eyes with a smile before running off to help Therese with the home side.

While Jack is helping the staff to evacuate people in the visitors’ side, a guy trips and falls in front of Jack’s feet. Jack picks the guy up hurriedly and pleads, “Get to safety!”

The guy doesn’t thank him for the assist, but simply says while making eye-contact, “Hello, Jack.”

Jack confusedly attempts to ask, “You know --” but he is cut off by a wave of the crowd surging by him, pushing the guy away before Jack could get any answers.

After a couple of minutes, the audience has been completely cleared off, the six of us standing off at opposite sides of the football field and staring at each other. Then, Colby, Nathan, and I huddle closer while walking towards them as I say, “These are mutual-friends with raw powers. However, someone is in some way controlling them into being this violent; their usually-dark-brown eyes are unusually glowing a lime-green. They’re still human, so you do not kill or break but still do not underestimate them.”

Colby complains, “Not even breaking? These guys literally threatened you and the majority of both schools.”

I repeat, “No killing, no breaking.”

Nathan mumbles, “You’re no fun. I got Rocky on the far right.”

Colby answers, “Pyromaniac deserves a good beating after what he started.”

I confirm, “I got Rynon the waterbender on the far left, then.” We then position ourselves as we’re walking so that we walk straight towards our targets. As I’m walking, I’m chanting in my head,  _ Stay calm. Stay calm. Stay calm. _ Eventually, once I open my eyes, the irises become gray for my ⅛ human-Calm hybrid; then, my walk swiftly changes into a run.

Rynon quickly pulls more water out of thin air and then manipulates his stream of water to follow his arm-motions from up to down to left to right. As I’m charging, I dodge this attack with a shuffle to the left, a counterclockwise spin to the right, and a backbend evasion. Seeing his first attack as unsuccessful, Rynon bends another stream in a more straightforward formation; however, I just as easily dodge this with a shoulder roll as I’m only a few feet away from him. Once up close to him, I throw my right foot up to his chin with a front-snap kick; now my move is thwarted when Rynon surprisingly changes his full body into water! Rynon attempts to reach his watered hands onto me the moment he notices my eyes bulging open, but I reflexively counter with a back handspring so that my left foot kicks my right foot out of Rynon’s face with momentum; I land in a kneeling-superhero pose to then flip my head up to see Rynon not affected by my flip momentum-wise. Before he could reach me again, I expel a pale pink liquid from my mouth onto Rynon; once the fluid hits his water-body, Rynon immediately reverts back to human form without his control. Noticing this, Rynon stops in his tracks to attempt his water form again, giving me a split-second-opportunity to knock him out with a left leaning-spinning-heel kick to his left temple.

Meanwhile, Colby is deflecting any fire-balls or fire-columns from John with ease due to simple wind gusts; John doesn’t show any sign of giving in until when Colby reaches the 50-yard line since John is slowly getting out of breath. After a few dodges and deflections, Colby notices his chance when John suddenly stops his onslaught to catch his breath; Colby then super-speeds in a clockwise motion to form a circular vortex that sucks the oxygen within it, including John’s air supply. After a few laps by Colby, John finally falls to his knees and struggles to throw his arms out for an attack or even breathe; now with him in that prone position, Colby stops his running while letting me jump in with a right-low-thrust kick that lands in a forwards-splits to the side of John’s head. Once John falls unconscious, Colby chuckles at the sight of me in the splits and states, “Showoff,” to which I simply shrug.

Then, Colby and I turn our heads towards Nathan as he shouts in an annoyed tone, “Do you know how less creative I can be when I’m being both attacked and asked to not even break a bone?!” He’s shouting this as he’s breaking any unnaturally-raised sections of earth bended at him with his escrima sticks manipulated to shatter whatever he hits. To help, I close my eyes to change my mindset from Calm to Sadness/Anger which will then allow me to picture a diamond shattering into dust; a singular diamond forms from thin air and levitates in front of Colby, who instinctively pushes a simple yet powerful gust of wind in Allan’s direction; the diamond shatters into dust once within a few centimeters away from his face, momentarily blinding him and easily allowing Nathan to charge in with a right flying-side kick to the chest. 

With all three of the opposition taken care of, everyone reconvenes with each other and Jack exclaims, “That was awesome! I didn’t even hear any formation or name calls throughout that whole fight; you guys were so smooth! How did you do it?”

I exhale myself back into fully-human form and answer him, “Powers or no powers, we’ve always had smooth teamwork.”

Colby inputs, “Don’t worry; you’ll eventually get to that level with us.”

Nathan digresses from the subject, “So, what are we going to do with these three?”

I answer, “Well, their heads were hit by either a kick or by their fall to the ground; so, there is a chance that they might forget about tonight but we can question them on Monday. Nathan, please transport them to their homes refreshed.” Nathan silently obliges by snapping his fingers once again to transport John, Rynon, & Allan back to their homes, conscious at their individual house’s front doorsteps.

Therese pouts as we all start walking off the field, “I wish I could have done more tonight.”

I reassure her, “Don’t worry about tonight, Therese; with time and practice, you’ll eventually be more participatory in the future. Besides, you did good with the evacuation; right, guys?” Colby and Nathan simply yet silently nod their heads towards her in a gesture of minimum approval. I sigh at the lackluster response, then turn again to Jack for both of us to shrug our shoulders.

***

Jack safely returns home, dumps his sports-bag on the ground of his bedroom, struggles to take his dirty clothes to the laundry, and showers. Once he’s finished with his shower, he returns to his room with his phone ringing on his bed. He picks up his phone to spot a number he doesn’t recognize yet is coming from the San Marcos area code, so he takes it, “Hello?”

The caller coolly responds, “Tonight was crazy, right?”

Jack talks back in a slightly confused tone, “Oh, I remember your voice from the game, and your face does seem familiar now that I could think about it although I don’t remember right now. But, how did you get this number?”

After a small pause, the caller responds, “Hello, Jack.” These two words are enough to cause Jack to fall silent as his eyes began to glow a brilliant lime-green color.


	9. Ties

The following weekend was hectic with homework and training. This is Kuya Daniel’s last weekend free before he goes back to school, so he’s been doubling down on training. In fact, he’s even been working with Jack on effective striking since he’s one of our more effective fighters; I’ve seen it whenever Jack & I spar since his technique definitely feels more powerful.

Saturday, January 21, 2017.

Kuya Daniel, Jack, Therese, Nathan, Colby, and I are in the karate studio warming up while talking to each other. Then, Colby takes the lead, “Alright, good morning everybody! Today, we’re gonna start with testing out weapons for ourselves. For those who already know what weapon they want to use, go ahead in taking those out of the weapons closet; we’ll show them off by sparring each other once everyone’s got what they need.”

Everyone but me walk towards the supply closet, and Kuya Daniel is the last person to stand so he’s the first to notice, “Hey, you waiting for them to get out?”

I respond, “Actually, I already have my mains. I’ll just show them when we start sparring. Go ahead; I don’t want everyone else to be waiting for your slow butt.”

My words are met with a punch to the arm and, “Hey, this butt drives you around everywhere, ya schmuck.”

I stick my tongue out, “Whatever. Now please go. And you can’t hit me again because I said ‘please’.” I still get punched anyways before Kuya Daniel leaves the floor.

After a few moments, everyone else comes out with their weapons: Kuya Daniel is manipulating a pair of nunchaku in his hands, Nathan is holding his bo staff that can detach to become escrima sticks, Colby is emerging with a wooden sword in his left hand and his kusarigama in his right, Therese is holding a pair of plastic sai, and Jack is possessing a rubber knife in his right hand. 

When I notice these choices, Nathan steps in, “She chose the sai on her own, but she’s starting off with the plastic ones instead of the real ones for now. As for him, a knife is the best weapon in aiding him to stay stealthy; I’ll make him a real knife one of these days, but we’ll stick with a fake one for now.” 

I nod before directing, “Okay, we’ll do this: we’ll start the first round with Kuya Daniel vs Colby, Nathan vs Therese, and me vs Jack. Later, we can do other pairings so everyone can get used to each other. We’ll focus on our weapons and hand-to-hand, but powers are allowed, especially since mine are made with my powers. Is everyone good?” Everyone simply nod and we then separate into our first match-ups & begin.

Jack and I bow to each other, then I produce a dulled version of Japanese war fans made of ice in both of my hands. Jack comments, “Fans? Cool.”

Before we connect with any offense, I take in a deep breath and exhale cold air towards him. Jack guards with the rubber knife in front of his face; his face wasn’t my target but rather the knife itself so it can be sharpened with a coating of ice.

Spying this change, Jack stammers, “What- what are you doing?”

I respond, “One way or another, you’re going to have to learn how to use it effectively. We don’t have any real knives here, so that’s the best alternative; I kept the handle de-iced though so you can actually hold it without cold burn.”

Jack inputs, “But I might hurt you with this.” I walk to him without a word, grab his right wrist with the knife in that hand, and force him to cut my left bicep very shallowly yet enough to show a line of blood. Jack reacts loudly, “What the heck?!” that the others stop their match momentarily to check on us. 

Everyone immediately calms down, however, at the sight of the cut being covered by water crawling into the cut and healing instantaneously. Still gripping his wrist, I duck under his arm as I spin in a counterclockwise motion, twisting his arm enough so his whole upper body falls into a slouch. Jack groans in pain before I state, “I can heal; and the focus for this match is to work on your offense, so I’m focusing moreso on pressuring you. Besides, you’re going to have to learn how to fight anyone and everyone of every size and affiliation, and that includes me. There will eventually come a time where we have to fight each other full-out for whatever reason, so it’s best that I prepare you slowly. Okay?” I release his arm, and I’m a little surprised when he doesn’t laugh off the threat but actually stays serious & nods at the statement as he becomes upright. 

Jack goes into a comfortable guarding-stance, then attempts a right sideways-arcing swing with the knife pointing from the outwards part of his hand; before it can connect, I swing a left inside-outside-crescent kick directly onto his wrist. Jack doesn’t lose his grip on the knife, but his focus is too much on the knife that he doesn’t fully notice a right roundhouse kick flying to his left shoulder until it’s too late; he writhes at the slight pain, but is able to quickly dodge an arcing inward-sideways swing of my left open-fan with a backwards step. I continue a clockwise spin to keep the momentum, then lean slightly to throw a right spinning-hook kick toward his head; my foot is quickly caught at the Achilles tendon with Jack’s free left hand, then he sweeps at my left balancing foot with his own left foot and releasing my right foot. 

I immediately start a backwards roll upon contact with the wooden floor, but Jack just as quickly crouches down to my level and shifts his knife so the blade is pointing out between his thumb & other fingers so he can stick the blade mere centimeters in front of my throat. Jack calmly states as we pause with the knife floating in front of my throat, “You’re shorter and lighter than me by a large margin, so you try to compensate with kicks helped by the insane difference in flexibility. But watching you for a few weeks has made you a little more predictable.” I counter after this statement by attempting to poke at his chest with my right closed-fan; Jack reacts by backing up again while swinging the knife in an arcing outward-sideways motion, but I dodge this by falling into a backbend then swinging in a counterclockwise direction until I straighten myself. I continue the momentum once again by sticking my right leg behind myself through his legs and hop so my left leg wraps around the back of his left thigh; he’s utterly confused by what’s happening, so he doesn’t anticipate me to still spin counterclockwise while my upper body is oriented horizontally and to blow a puff of air from my right hand pointing at an angle in order to force him to fall forward on his chest while I land safely on my butt. Jack fortunately breaks his fall with his hands, but he still groans, “Well, I definitely wasn’t expecting that.”

I add, “New for me too.” I slip my right leg out from under Jack’s body and backwards roll into a kneel & stand. He analyzed me, so I guess I’ll do it to him too, “As a quarterback, you reflexively step backwards at any sign of threat to you.”

Jack pushes up and charges at me directly at great speed, ending with a straight tackle with his left shoulder hitting my abdomen while wrapping his arms around my waist but releasing before his wrists hit the floor as I land on my back. Jack comments, “You should know that I started out as a Right Tackle before sticking as a Quarterback.” 

I interrupt, “Hmm, noted,” before passing my left closed fan to my right hand and wrapping my left arm around the back of his neck & my legs around his abdomen in order to complete a mounted guillotine choke. After a few moments of struggling for breath, Jack slowly stands into an upright position despite me hanging onto him like a monkey; he applies a pressured grip with both of his hands on either side of my waist to loosen my grip, allowing him to push me away & upwards then push powerfully forward once I release my left arm from around his neck. While mid-air, I pass my second fan back to my left hand to then open them & fan them powerfully in front of my horizontal body to produce a slight wind of cold air that will kill most of the downward momentum; the wind pushes my body upright enough so that I safely land on the balls of my feet, but the feeling of safety turns into a feeling of alarm when Jack is nowhere in sight. I stand back up in a defensive position with my fans opened, but it comes to nothing when I feel the invisible Jack stand behind me, contort my left arm into a chicken-wing position, and float the knife back in front of my neck. “Drop them,” is what he says as his body materializes back into visibility.

I oblige to his command, but he has no time to relax as I immediately grip his whole right hand that’s holding the knife with my right hand and materialize my wings of Sadness. This pushes Jack to fall to his back, losing the knife from his hand; with him prone, I spin to his direction and drop the knife at my feet. When Jack reopens his eyes, my wings have already retracted and I reach out my hand as I say, “Good job.” Jack reaches his own hand and stands up with my help, and we both bow to each other. I turn my attention to the other four, “Alright guys, we can swi --,” but I stop my statement when the both of us revel at the four of them going at it: Kuya Daniel ducking an overhead-swing from Colby’s sword to masterfully swing his nunchaku at Colby’s abdomen, Colby kicking at the back of Kuya Daniel’s leg as he’s passing, Kuya Daniel catching an upcoming kick from Colby with the string part of the nunchaku; Nathan dodging swings and jabs from Therese’s sai, Therese almost literally dancing to dodge the bo staff swings, both clashing at the end with sai & escrima sticks in the middle. Before any of them move on, I fill the room with a sense of alarm due to my screech of Sadness. I then state, “Switch,” while Jack just laughs. Everyone bows to their former partners then move to new pairings: Kuya Daniel vs Therese, Nathan vs Jack, and me vs Colby.

Everyone starts with their new matchups, and a few minutes of sparring pass until the room becomes filled with another booming & animalistic sound, but it’s not coming from me; we all turn towards the sound to find that Kuya Daniel has transformed into the ¼ version of Anger and roared at Therese to startle her. However, once the roar stops and everyone is watching, Therese doesn’t wince but instead simply drops her sai and calmly reaches her right hand for Kuya Daniel’s face, or rather my face; Kuya Daniel is just as surprised, yet doesn’t move while Therese stares into the icy-blue eyes of Anger.

Out of nowhere, Therese spouts in a somber tone, “So much rage. Who knew that you of all people could be capable of this much hate.” She turns her head in my direction, “The question is, who made you feel like this?”

Kuya converts back into his human form while everyone converges towards the middle of the wooden floor. Once in a circle with everyone else, I close my eyes & take in a deep breath only to quickly reopen them to expose the eyes of Anger; everyone reflexively drop their weapons while they take sharp breaths and their heads fly backwards because their minds are suddenly flooded with my own thoughts that represent my anger: me crying hysterically, Mom and Dad yelling at me while I’m in a dejected or closed position and me yelling back, friends leaving, people laughing at me, me hitting everything in my room while screaming, me screaming at my own reflection in the mirror, and the last image being of a dark figure standing tall in front of me while I’m kneeling & sobbing.

Everyone comes back to consciousness, faces contorted into expressions of even more confusion. Kuya Daniel vocalizes first, “What just happened?”

I answer, “As an empath, not only can I feel other people’s thoughts & feelings, but I can also allow others to see mine. What you just saw were my thoughts centered on anger, both real and imagined. I’ve been yelled at, bullied, stared at, laughed at, left, even assumed to be gay.” My volume intensifies as I continue, “However, to answer your question, Therese: the one person I’ve been the most mad at consistently has been myself; mad that I’m this vulnerable and trusting, mad that I put on that certain attitude that people just assume things instead of getting to know me, mad that I’ve let people take advantage of me, mad at losing things I could have easily held onto, mad that I could let people forget about me when I could have made a better impression or something.” Just talking about all of this is all-consuming that I don’t even notice the diamond claws protruding onto my fingertips until Colby points them out.

Everyone around me is dead silent and non-moving, until Therese walks to sit to my right and Colby sits at my left. Colby, being the realist he is, comments, “You know you can’t control what others think of you and who stays, even with powers.”

I project an ingenuine smile to him, “I know, but it’s nice to have people that are reliable and consistent with me. What’s the point in showing your whole self when people don’t stay the whole time?.” 

The silence momentarily returns as Therese lies her head in comfort and sympathy on my shoulder, but Jack interrupts this, “Hey, the last image you showed us; the person standing in front of you. Who was that?”

I regain some composure to answer, “Oh, he actually went to middle school with us. Why?”

He responds, “I couldn’t get the full details of his face at the game or in your dream, but I think I saw him last night, running with everyone else. What was his name?”

I’m about to respond, “His name was J--”

Ma’am enters the room all of the sudden, “Guys, I’m about to have my Women’s Self-Defense class soon. I need you to leave; Therese, if you want to learn more, you can stay.”

Therese lights up at the idea, “Sure, I can do that; and I can call Sam & Lexi so they can practice fighting too. Thank you, Ma’am!”

Everyone stands up in order to leave, and I return to the prior conversation, “Anyways, his name is not important because it’s not like he’s going to come back into my life, right? Him dumping me without a word in 8th grade should be evidence enough.” I’m the first one to walk back to the dressing room while everyone else just stares somberly.

Kuya Daniel tries to reassure the group, “Don’t let him get to you; he’s not the best at letting go and he can be over-dramatic.”

Therese counters, “Is that what you really think about that?” Everyone there turns to her as she continues, “Now I see why things are boiling up inside him, because he hasn’t had people take him seriously; even as his brother, you’ve been no help to that.”

Kuya Daniel defends himself, “Hey, he might just be overthinking things or he brings those thoughts on himself, because he’s always at home to himself and he seems content.”

Therese argues, “Do you really believe that? Why do you think he shuts in and feels that much anger? From what I see at school, he seems genuinely happy around people. Granted, he might just want to put on a face for others or he might secretly still feel lonely, but he is capable of happiness if others listen.”

The two continue to go at it, until I walk back into the room and wave to everyone, “I’ll see you guys soon. Kuya, I’ll see you at the car.” They silently wave back; and as they all look at each other as if they had the shared thought of  _ Do you think he heard all of that? _ , I state without even turning around, “Super hearing from Anger and voices travel ‘cause of the wood!”


	10. Strange Altercations

Monday, January 23rd, 2017.

It’s 12:30 in the afternoon right now, and I’m just walking from Sam’s friends’ lunch table once we were done talking after Hale’s class; I’m about to walk past the 500 building when Jack notices me walking by myself. Jack calls out, “Matt!” Once I turn to his direction, I see him excuse himself from his group and walk towards me. I simply wave, and Jack starts a conversation once he’s standing a foot away from me, “Hey. How are you doing, big dog?”

I answer, “I’m fine, Jack. Sorry if I’m not as energetic as usual; the usual school mood and workload is finally catching up to me. How are you and how was your day so far?”

“I’m good, and it looks like it’s going to rain again.”

“Sorry but side note: is it bad that I still have no nickname or pet name for you? I mean, you somehow have a vast array of names for me already: buddy, big dog, Matty, there’s bound to be others that I’m forgetting.”

The rain starts picking up as he chuckles, “Don’t worry, man; something will come to you eventually. So, do you want to talk about this past weekend? I mean, with John and the others attacking the game to our sparring match and the whole Anger thing?”

The rain is practically pouring once we hastily find cover and I answer, “There’s nothing really to talk about, Jack. All I did was take care of a situation and expose my feelings to people I believe I can trust.”

“Are you sure?” I nod with a small smile, so he turns the subject, “Well, I’m going to walk to the gym to meet up with some other friends. Where are you going?”

“I’m just going to the library, but you seem to not have much to protect you from the rain, so I can walk with you for a bit with my umbrella.”

“Sure. Thanks, buddy.” I take out my umbrella from my backpack and open it; it’s technically small and a bit feminine, but it’s the best I could find in the morning. The two of us start walking down the stairs towards the gym with the umbrella above us; my arm is completely extended since Jack is so freaking tall to which Jack snickers and apologizes, which makes me chuckle a bit.

Looking at the rain, I randomly comment, “You know, this weather reminds me of Hawaii.”

Jack looks down to me as he notices my smile & comment, “Hawaii? Huh, I always imagined it as sunny for most of the year.”

“Hawaii can be chaotic with its weather, unlike South California. I say that rain in particular reminds me of Hawaii because my dad’s side of the family went on a vacation there in 2009 among other years since his family grew up there for a bit; we stayed at this cottage called Barber’s Point which was right next to a beach so we practically swam everyday in rain or shine.”

“Wow, that sounds like fun for a 10 year old and his family.”

“Yep, those were the good old days. And Hawaiian beaches are the reason why Calm’s main element is water because the sound of crashing waves & the thought of the sunset reflecting beautifully off the water have always been the things to calm me down.” While my gaze shifts back and forth between him and forward, Jack simply smiles at me.

Once we enter through the gym doors, I close my umbrella and we say our goodbyes; we engage in a hug and release promptly. Jack turns to see his teammates congregating near the indoor staircase; while he’s preoccupied with greeting some of them, I catch out of the corner of my eye another some of them staring at me with discontent.

_ Is it something I’m doing? Or do they smell “outsider”? Matthew, that’s way too stereotypical of you to think; they’re probably not that deep in that pack-mentality. _ I reopen my umbrella and proceed to walk to the library.

***

Lunch ends at 12:50, so I immediately start walking to AP Stats. Due to my normally speedy walk, I’m the first person to arrive in the classroom, so I revel in the momentary silence as I unpacked my stuff at my desk. I straighten my desk and my supplies on said desk to then notice Therese in my peripheral vision as she walks into the classroom. We simply exchange smiles to each other, then Therese sits at her desk that’s situated closer to the entrance whereas mine is situated on the opposite side of the room near Mr. Billing’s desk.

Once the one-minute bell rings, John and Rynon walk into the room. Almost instinctively, I stand out of my seat and march powerfully towards them; meanwhile, my eyes involuntarily change into the icy-blue tint of Anger and my throat vibrates in a low growl. I don’t intend on hitting them here, but all I want is a straight answer.

My intentions unclear to her, Therese immediately grabs at one of my arms and tugs me away from the other two. I feel the resistance and choose not to break her, but I spout otherwise, “How do you explain yourselves? Huh? Risking the lives of all those people and exposing yourselves like that?”

Both John and Rynon jump in surprise; then Rynon almost sincerely asks, “What are you talking about?”

I aggressively respond, “Friday night!”

John matches in aggression with his input, “Like he said, what are you talking about?”

Therese inputs, trying to be the middle voice, “We saw you guys and Allan attacking the charity game on Friday.”

Rynon is taken aback and answers, “Therese, I was home on Friday night. I don’t remember going to any game.” This time, both Therese and I are the ones taken by surprise.

I calm down a little bit, “What you’re saying is that you don’t remember getting out of the house on Friday night?”

John intervenes by stepping directly in front of me, “We weren’t at the game, so you can calm the fuck down and move on.” 

_ Well, dang _ . 

Therese contorts a surprised yet disgusted face towards John as the two of us walk away from them. Once the other two have calmed down and other people are starting to enter the classroom, Therese whispers, “Didn’t you say that they could have possibly be hypnotized on Friday?”

My eyes revert back to normal, then I continue the conversation, “That’s the most probable cause at the moment. On Friday, their eyes were glowing green, and their speech patterns were a little bit out of character, as if I have personally scorned them by giving them powers when they shouldn’t have any possible evidence to help them point the finger at me; I thought I was being careful.”

“You call what you just did ‘careful’?”

“I’m sorry; that reaction was more so involuntary.”

“Anyways, back to them: could they have been brainwashed into forgetting about Friday night?”

“Not necessarily since it’s natural in hypnotism that the participant is not able to remember the events of when he/she was under once out of the trance. And there was no green glow coming from them just now.”

“Well, I was thinking that John was exhibiting unnatural behavior; he’s usually not that aggressive.”

“Remember, I like you but I was never really able to click with the majority of your group on a deeper level, so it’s natural to be defensive for the sake of a close friend against someone who is not so close.”

“Wow. First the hypnosis talk, then friendship commentary. Who are you?”

“Well, I do want to major in Psychology, so I’ve been taking Psych classes already. Speaking of Psych, let’s use some reasoning: all three of them were hypnotized at the same time.”

“Indicated by the unnatural, or rather supernatural, lime-green glow.”

“Yeah. Regular hypnosis can’t be triggered or sustained for that long without proper triggering stimuli or the practitioner closeby. And normal hypnosis is usually subtle; it’s not indicated so blatantly with glowing eyes.”

“So, what you’re saying is that this hypnosis is a superpower and that the culprit had to be close to the scene?”

“Yes on the first one, but not really on the second one; the hypnotizer could have implanted a trigger word or stimulus in order to set and activate the hypnosis so that the culprit doesn’t have to always be nearby in the case of needing someone to do his/her bidding. Also, I’m running through my head on who is possibly capable of such power and malicious intent.”

“Just because you screamed and triggered powers, that doesn’t mean that you suddenly know who gets what power. You don’t even know everyone that has gotten powers as of now, right?”

I shake my head, “No, I don’t. And now I’m starting to wonder if I’m the one to blame for what has happened and what’s in store.”

Therese places her right hand on my shoulder as the final bell rings, “You couldn’t have predicted getting powers or triggering powers within people; you’ve awakened things in people that they couldn’t even begin to understand, and that could be a good thing. You didn’t choose to have powers; but somehow someway, you were chosen to facilitate something amazing in certain people, people you deem or have deemed close to you.” Therese hugs me in order to comfort my racing mind, then walks to take her seat as Mr. Billings walks into the classroom from the back room.

My mind races more as I walk to take my own seat, ‘ _ People close to me.’ What if facilitating powers in certain people that are or were close to me also triggered bad thoughts or feelings in certain people? Or maybe the power got to their heads or something? _

***

Later that day, pretty much everyone except Kuya Daniel is training at the studio. Even Sam is here practicing with Colby on her super-speed since she still needs a handle on breath-control and braking; meanwhile, Therese & Lexi are practicing by themselves, Jack & myself are sparring on a couple of laid-out mats, and Nathan is sitting on other laid-out mats & listening to a contraption that’s foreign to me. 

Towards the end of our altercation, Jack grabs at my left wrist and twists the arm from there in a clockwise motion, causing me to fall into a hunched position. Jack chuckles in celebration, but it is premature because I immediately proceed into a one-handed cartwheel with my free hand to then spin with increased momentum counter-clockwise under his right arm. With him in the hunched position now, I end the bout by clockwise-spinning towards Jack while my left hand still grips his right wrist, placing my right leg directly behind his own & my right hand in a claw position mere inches in front of his face, and sweeping my leg against his while swinging my right hand onto his face; this tiger-claw leg-sweep results in Jack falling onto his back while I fall to my knees.

Jack winces at the impact, then laughs it off as he states, “Dang, nice move, Matt. Could you teach it to me?”

I simply smile and nod, only to be interrupted by Nathan hollering out, “Guys! I need everyone over here now!” Everyone suddenly turns to Nathan’s direction in high alert and rushes over to him. Once everyone approaches him, Nathan proceeds, “I just got a notification that there has been a possibly supernatural disturbance in the area, specifically Emerald Heights.”

I insert myself, “Do you know any other specifics?”

Nathan answers, “The police radio just says that a teen-aged male has somehow grown into an unnatural height & build and just started rampaging.” He also picks up a laptop from the mat and shows the screen to all of us, “Local news has also captured it. Does he look familiar?”

As everyone revels in shock at the sight of a muscled-up guy demolishing a neighborhood in real time, Therese, Lexi, Sam, & I are taken aback at the familiar face. Lexi exposes, “That’s Marvin. He’s in our AP Gov class at Mission, and he’s also in the Guys’ Varsity Basketball Te --”; she interrupts her sentence for another thought, “Wait, how did you get a police radio? And I thought we didn’t have WiFi in this building to support a laptop.”

Colby interjects, “Actually, Nathan and I made our own police radio and we also hacked into the WiFi of the neighboring buildings so we can use it.”

I respond, exasperated, “Seriously?”

Colby answers, “Nathan has been teaching me how to hack, and it’s actually not that hard.”

I shoot them a disapproving stare, but Jack comes in, “Can we refocus, please?”

While I apologize, Therese studies the news video, “Marvin’s eyes are the same lime green as when John, Rynon, & Allan attacked the school.”

Sam also observes the video, “So, what do we do?”

I lay out, “Okay, so he’s being hypnotized as well; therefore, he’s not in complete control of himself. The best course of action is to be quick yet effective: Colby, Therese, Jack, and I will approach Marvin to try to calm him down; Nathan will quarterback from here since he can replicate telepathy, therefore we’ll have communications; Sam and Lexi, you’ll stay here with Nathan in the case of emergencies.”

Sam tries to interject, “But I don’t want to be sitting around! I want to help out.”

I calmly reject her, “You’re not doing nothing; you are standing aside not just for your fighting inexperience, but also because you can listen on the telepathic conversation just in the case of giving any of us a quick getaway if needed. This is very important, okay?” She nods in hesitant understanding and even sparks a small smile as if she felt reassured.

Jack steps up in a leader role as well, “Okay, here is the best play: Therese & Colby, since you guys are the fastest out of the four of us, you go ahead and assess the situation, both environment and degree of damage; I’ll go with Matt once he confirms Nathan is geared up with the equipment and connection.”

Everyone else nods in stern agreement and turn to get their weapons, while Nathan gives off an impressed smile and nod towards Jack. He then mouths off, “I guess being an actual quarterback does have its benefits.”

Jack nudges Nathan’s arm, “Thanks, man.”

Nathan turns cold again, “Don’t think that one compliment makes us buddy-buddy.” I slap his arm as a sign to ‘play nice’, so he just shrugs his shoulders before he continues, “Before everyone leaves, I want to try something Matthew and I have been working on.” He then snaps his fingers which has dark-blue energy sparks flying, causing a black material to creep up on everyone’s bodies and faces. Everyone is gasping in excitement and curiosity at the sight of superhero costumes materializing on them. The process ends with everyone wearing both a full-body-suit even with wraps hugging their shoes and a domino mask only covering the outskirts of their eye bones.

Therese revels in the costume, “It looks durable, yet I can easily move in it,” proceeding to maneuver her body for the sake of testing. She continues, “What is this made of?”

Nathan answers, “Both the mask & suit are a mix of reinforced tripolymer for mobility and Nextel for friction- & heat-resistance like the Flash in his CW show, but designed with a scale-like pattern similar to Superman’s suit in the movie ‘Man of Steel’.”

Colby asks, “Where did you get this idea?”

Nathan responds, “Matthew and I did the research, he did simple drawings to help us visualize a rough idea of what we wanted, and I made them just now.”

I add on, “And don’t worry; there will be time to customize them once we have the time. Okay, let’s go, guys!” Therese and Colby nod at me then at each other and take off to Emerald Heights. 

Nathan sits on his laid-out mat to concentrate; after a few seconds, he projects with his mind, “ _ Testing, one, two. One, two. Can anyone hear me? _ ”

 Colby answers first once stopping his momentum at Emerald Heights, “ _ Blur hearing you loud and clear, Warp _ .”

Therese inputs, “ _ Oh, you guys have your superhero names already? _ ”

Colby chuckles in his thoughts, “ _ And you don’t? _ ”

She answers, “ _ Actually, I was thinking of Blink or Limelight.” _

Nathan responds, “ _ Go with Limelight. There’s already a Blink in Marvel Comics and we don’t need confusion if we are eventually going public.” _

I interrupt, “ _ Can we please focus? Nathan has set up his monitors and stuff while you guys were running and talking, so Jack and I are on our way now. What’s the situation? _ ”

Both of them refocus to assess the situation, and they revel in awe and horror as they see the road utterly cracked in multiple places, fire hydrants exploding, people randomly scrambling, and houses on the verge of collapse. Therese answers, “ _ Marvin is brash and overt, but I never thought that he could be this destructive. _ ”

Colby inputs, “ _ Remember, he’s being controlled to do this stuff. _ ”

She corrects, “ _ Actually, what Matthew and I discussed earlier is that this is more of a type of hypnosis than straight mind control, so the victims still have a sense of control and personality to them. At least to an extent, as seen with John, Rynon, and Allan. _ ” Colby drops his eye contact in discouragement as they’re walking.

They accelerate into a jog as the two of them pass through the street, sounds of cracking and screaming becoming louder. They occasionally stop to check on fallen or running citizens in order to both help them and confirm the police report; all testimonies confirm that an Filipino teenager has been running amok through the Emerald Heights neighborhoods for a few minutes now. Once done talking, Therese and Colby fully sprint towards the origin of the noisy chaos: the community pool.

Colby sidetracks, “This neighborhood has a pool? It’s huge, yet sounds disgusting.”

Therese joins, “Actually, it’s cleaned very often and no one in the neighborhood is extremely dirty.”

Nathan communicates, “ _ You’ve been here before, Therese? _ ”

She answers, “ _ I have a few friends that live in these neighborhoods. _ ”

Jack and I as ¼ form of Sadness eventually hover next to a poised Colby and Therese as they stare in awe at Marvin charging effortlessly through the gates surrounding the pool area and towards us. “Move!” I yelled before I ascend back into the air with Jack at hand so the two of them can move as Marvin is on the verge of running us into the ground. As we dodge this onslaught, Marvin simply crashes into the office area’s wall.

The four of us converge together again, this time Jack and I actually landing on the ground, when Colby mouths off, “Huh, he’s surprisingly fast for someone that has to carry a lot more body weight than normal.”

Marvin easily emerges from the now broken office despite the wall being brick siding with a menacing chuckle before stating, “Hey, Matthew. Can I still borrow your AP Gov notes after I break you?” I stay stone-faced, trying to access Calm in my head. He then turns his attention to Therese, “Therese? No?” Therese stays just as stone-faced. He then turns to the other two, “I know Jack right there next to Matthew, but I don’t think I know this one.”

Colby whispers to the rest of us, “Is it bad that he knows you guys even with the masks?”

Nathan answers for us, “ _ That just further confirms that the Friday football incident and today are connected. The person pulling the strings must have put two and two together to see that we’re the same people from Friday; not knowing you, Colby, might just be a ploy to divert attention from the mastermind by pulling from Marvin’s experience since he doesn’t actually know you. _ ”

Jack admits, “ _ That last part doesn’t make sense. _ ” Before he adds any other thoughts, Marvin starts charging towards us once again, so we all scatter before we’re pounded by his now-enlarged horse-leg-looking arms.

Nathan adds, “ _ It doesn’t have to make sense now; just take him down. _ ”

Therese inputs, “ _ Easy for you to say; you’ve never had to fight a guy twice your height and with unnaturally-bulging arms. _ ”

Colby and Nathan state simultaneously, “ _ Oh, you’d be surprised _ .”

I interrupt as I’m prepared with ⅛ Calm form, “Alright, people; let’s get this over with, please. Colby, Therese, Base Breaker; Jack, Crane’s Perch!” Everyone simply nods in my direction from where they’re standing while Marvin expresses a confused look. Colby & Therese, both standing at either side of Marvin while behind him, run & slide on their knees to hit at the back of Marvin’s knees in order to force him into a kneel. Jack then moves in between me and Marvin to cup his hands palms-side-up in front of himself; I place & push off of his hands with my right foot in order to soar over Jack and send a double-foot stomp onto Marvin’s face. The impact is so hard that I somehow backflip in the air before landing while the pressure pushes the enlarged Marvin to the ground; with him flat on the ground, I manipulate some pool water over Marvin and freeze it onto him for restraint.

Jack compliments, “Nice formation, guys!”

Everyone laughs except me, for I coldly state, “It’s never that easy.” They stare at me in disbelief, but then turn into a state of uncertainty when they hear the ice in front of them rumbling. Eventually, the cocoon explodes with Marvin swinging his humongous arms! As he stands, I add, “It’s not over yet,” while everyone drops straight into fighting stances.

Marvin seems almost unfazed when he cracks his neck without his hands and then utters, “Come on, guys. Justin says that you can do better.” The utterance of that name visibly shakes me as I gasp and straighten myself from my stance; the others, even Nathan and the girls over the comms, are confused by my reaction.

Sam talks for once on the comms, “ _ Matthew, what’s going on? Are you okay? _ ”

Instead of responding, I quickly revert from ⅛ Calm straight to ½ Anger: intense icy-blue eyes, real tiger claws & paws slowly forming on both my hands & feet, and even my suit turning a golden brown with black stripes like it would on my skin. 

Jack asks, “Nathan, what did you do to these suits?”

Nathan replies, “ _ I made them up like nano-tech so they can shift to whatever form the user wants, whether it’d be clothing or whatever’s on their skin. Easier customization that way.” _

I then release a strong roar at Marvin’s direction while asserting, “Don’t you dare say his name to me!”

Lexi interjects, “ _ What’s going on? And who’s Justin? _ ”

Colby doesn’t answer but rather freaks out, “Guys, he’s losing it! I’ve never seen him go this far in the transformation or even this angry in general.”

Nathan proclaims, “ _ Don’t do anything. This might work to our advantage. _ ”

As they’re talking, I rush towards Marvin with arms wide open & poised in tiger-claw hand positions as the fingertips are covered in sharpened diamond; before I can even swing, Marvin places his right hand that’s twice the size of my face in between the two of us and he easily catches my whole head!

Colby interjects, “Well, that didn’t work. Come on, guys!” However, both him and Therese are stopped in her tracks by the swinging of Jack’s arms in front of them. Colby growls, “What are you doing? You’re getting in the way.”

Jack responds, “You’ll only get in the way, and I don’t think any version of Matthew would like you hurt especially by him.” The three of them relax, only to observe in my struggle that I land my right foot onto the earth, manipulate a small amount to wrap around my whole foot & ankle, and swing that foot of earth through a roundhouse kick at the inside of Marvin’s right arm in the elbow area. Marvin writhes in pain just after releasing my head, allowing me to strike him a few times and ending with a powerful military-press & throw into the nearby pool. As he splashes spectacularly, I heave and growl at the sight then turn towards everyone to see Therese’s jaw dropping, Colby pulling his hair in shock, and Jack showing a small smile as a sign of being impressed.

Therese resumes verbality, “Well, that was … new from you.”

Colby interrupts, “THAT WAS FUCKING AWESOME!”

Jack stays focused as he walks up to me, “So, you can see even through the water that his eyes are glowing green. What do you want to do now?”

I don’t answer him as Marvin re-emerges from the water, but rather turn to face a “deflated” Marvin and try to get into his head through eye-contact. Despite my efforts to reverse the hypnosis or get a location on Justin or anything by entering Marvin’s mind, my efforts are refused by blinding lime-green light overtaking my whole perception. I am taken aback by the painful light that I shriek and automatically revert back to normal & involuntarily fall backwards; fortunately, Jack was close enough to catch me and Colby reacts by running on the water & punt-kicking Marvin in the face to knock him out.

Therese runs over to Jack & myself and asks, “Are you okay? What just happened?”

I answer weakly, “I tried to get into his head, but there was a defensive mechanism that overtook all of my senses. I couldn’t get a location on Justin or remove his hold on Marvin.”

Sam, Lexi, & Nathan arrive at our side in super-speed, then Lexi reiterates, “Which leads me to my earlier question: who’s Justin?”

I shake my head and answer, “Long story short without the Anger slideshow you missed: former classmate from the same middle school that Jack and I went to, thought he was my friend in 7th grade, didn’t talk to me at all in 8th, assumed he moved on from me while I didn’t but it turns out that he hasn’t moved far enough. That work?” Lexi & Sam nod with blank face. Nathan & Jack help me up from the ground; I then redirect the conversation, “Nathan, fix the neighborhoods and wipe the memories of the people, please.”

Nathan acknowledges, “Got it.” He then snaps his fingers which once again produce blue sparks from the friction, indicating that he’s reversing the damage done to Emerald Heights & returning people to their homes without any memory of the whole incident. 

While the process is working, Therese teleports to Marvin’s exact position at the surface of the pool water, grabs at his hair, and teleports instantaneously to Colby’s position at the opposite side of the pool. Once the rebuilding process ends, Therese & Colby stop dragging Marvin’s body at our feet and Therese asks in a sympathetic tone, “So, what do we do with him?”

Nathan looks at me, “Do you want me to try to get in his mind?”

I say, “No, I don’t want you to risk what happened to me on you too. Besides, since he was hypnotized, he already won’t know about what happened today; therefore, our identities shouldn’t be compromised. Anyways, let’s just drop him off at the school since I think he still has basketball practice.”

Colby interrupts, “Before we go, we should make sure we understand you, Matthew: a few days ago, you showed us your visions of anger and you were about to tell us a name of someone that we saw in them. Were you going to say Justin?”

Everyone looks at me with eyes of concern or longing for the answer, so I simply answer, “Yes.” I then revert to ⅛ Anger and lift Marvin easily onto my shoulder with my enhanced tiger-like strength before ending the conversation, “I’ll take Marvin to school; you guys can go home or back to the studio if you want. I’ll see you guys soon.” Without as much as a smile, I open a hole in the earth and dive into it with Marvin on my shoulders; meanwhile, everyone else looks at each other in concern.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can tell, this was a long chapter; but it had to happen because a lot was going on! I hope you guys are enjoying this work so far, especially since it's slowly getting into the superhero theme with the tease of group fighting and the baseline super-suits. See you guys soon!


	11. Superhero Tingz, Part One: Orion's Belt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of who knows how many filler episodes; don't worry, I will keep the amount short. Just wanted to work on character-focus and dialogue before moving on with the many story. I hope you enjoy.

Saturday, February 4, 2017.

Escondido, a neighboring city of San Marcos, is a prime example of the urban/suburban life; easily switching back and forth between sturdy houses of middle-class and plazas exploding with bustling city life. One such part of the latter is this imposingly tall bank emanating this rich energy despite being in a part of the city where homelessness run rampant: clean beige brick wall on the outside, sky blue painted walls on the inside, emerald-green carpet, automatic sliding glass-doors at the front, lines of people in front of bank tellers and the safes sitting at the back, small cubicles lining the sides throughout the whole building, and four small stair steps cutting down the middle of the floor. Bodies move all around on this Saturday morning, but everyone moves in an orderly fashion and do not seem rushed.

The order does not last much longer as three black-clad figures of varying body proportions charge through the sliding doors and create alarming sounds from strange objects held in their grasps & pointed towards the ceiling. The high-pitched and short yet consecutive booms are enough to cause a scare in all of the people inside the bank, many instinctively falling to the floor with their hands netting over the back of their heads.

One male figure the size of a grizzly bear boasts with an equally grizzly voice, “Hmph, they cower awfully fast, don’t they?”

“Yeah. What helps is this shit the black market comes out with getting crazier and crazier,” says a female figure with her significantly shorter stature yet still definitely toned in terms of her muscles.

The last figure, standing at the same height and similar lean build as the female, interrupts in this cool tone of his, “Can we focus? Bosco, get in the back and put those large hands to use. Dalia, we round them up.”

All of them nod their heads to each other before going their separate ways within the bank, Dalia yelling, “Alright, people! Keep those eyes down and cough those pretty wallets up. Thank you so much for your cooperation.” She liberally points her weapon towards patrons as they scurry towards the middle of the large room while Damian sifts through every bank teller at the back & their individual cash registers while pointing his own weapon with more purpose.

Meanwhile, Bosco took one of the back bank tellers literally by his head to one of the large safes, then pointed his gun at the teller as he commanded the teller to open the safe door. The teller finally opened the door after a few seconds, no matter how shakily, and Bosco simply regripped the head before throwing the smaller man to the side. However, as he enters the safe, he is welcomed by a “Hello” coming from a masked teenager twirling a bo staff in one of his hands.

A few minutes passed, and Damian & Dalia have managed to fill up four gym bags of cash and wallets. Standing triumphantly over their pile of bags, they suddenly get jumpy and point their guns at the entrance glass doors once they hear them sliding at the presence of two teenagers also clad in black.

Colby says without breaking eye contact with the thieves in front of him, “Stay calm. Not tryna pay for damages for this place.”

“Roger that,” as I walk by his side and unscrew the covers on the canisters strapped to either side of my hips by a belt.

Dalia yells at Damian, “Light ‘em up!” followed by the two of them firing at will towards us, even once I’ve already bent the water from my canisters into a floating wall of ice. 

Taking a closer look at the silver and slightly bulky objects in their hands, Colby asks, “Hey, aren’t those the laser guns you described when you were talking about that day?”

“There was only one; but yeah, that’s it. Most probably black market.”

“Great. Add finding these to the list of headaches we already have.”

“Speaking of headaches, did you finish that English paper you were assigned two weeks ago?”

“Uh, sure. Let’s go with that.”

“You said it’s due Monday.”

“Been busy.”

“Seriously?!”

“For someone who constantly tells us to focus on the task at hand, you’re not focusing on the task at hand.”

“Can’t a guy multitask?”

“You can, but ugh -- I got the guy.”

“Whatever. Let’s get this over so you can actually get to that paper.”

“Fine.” Colby preps himself before throwing the kama part of his kusarigama slightly to the right, intending to curve it at the right time. Meanwhile, I transform our wall of ice back into water before pushing the water as two separate streams in order to plug the guns pointed at us with ice. 

Damian is too distracted by the ice in front of him that he can’t give himself enough time to react to the black sickle-&-chain proceeding to wrap around his body a couple of times before the blade part of the sickle hooks into one of the chain holes. Colby instigates action by super-speeding around Damian a few more times, wrapping more chain around the body, before flicking at the chain like a whip so the end of it reverbs with a crack that brings Damian to his sitting position and finishing with a sidekick square on the nose.

The stream covering Dalia’s firearm is connected to my left hand, so I make a whipping motion of my own that causes Dalia to release her gun before being promptly hit by the gun on her forehead. She writhes in pain for a few seconds, allowing me to drop the water & gun to the ground and walk relaxed to her; once she reopens her eyes, she’s dumbfounded to see me with magnificent silver eyes opening my mouth with a hissing noise to have some lavender liquid being sprayed at her face. The effects take almost-immediate hold as she continues to scream, her body unconsciously relaxing to the point of her falling to her knees while she tries swinging her arms to get some feeling back; now in a prone position and no way to properly react, she can do nothing but succumb to the incoming tornado kick thrown by a speeding Colby.

I snicker, “Showoff.”

He reacts, “Hey, you’d do the same thing. In fact you did that last month with your pryo-maniac friend.”

“Eh, I would have gone for something less flashy just in case if she were actually able to react.”

“Oh, so you want me to do a split-legged thrust kick? Fat chance.”

“It was worth a shot.”

Nathan walks into the main room, carrying Bosco with one hand while Bosco is unconscious and surrounded by a dark-blue aura; “You two done yet?” as he drops the large man between the other two criminals, causing both Bosco’s stomach and the ground at impact to shake momentarily.

I revert back fully into human form as I answer, “Yep, pretty much. Safe secured?”

“Done.” He looks over at Dalia while Colby starts unwrapping the kusarigama around Damian. “Uh, what’s that purple goo all over that woman’s face?”

“A fast-acting toxin with a little lavender mixed in to mess with the body’s acetylcholine flows and relax the body to the point of near-numbness.”

“I need that recipe.”

“Why exactly do you need my recipe for a full-body anesthetic?”

“Bright side: good supplement for those struggling with sleep, aka me. Dark side: great torture tool.”

Colby steps in when finished with his weapon, “Damn dude, that’s dark, even for me.”

I add, “Yeah, ‘cause punching out a person at insane speeds or blowing them away at great distances aren’t dark enough.”

“Hey, I think going hands-on seems quicker than your whole poison approach.”

Nathan intercedes, “Oh, believe me, I agree. But you gotta have a little diversity sometimes.”

I’m gagging on the inside, “Oh geez, we really need to stop this conversation; we don’t need to send the message to these innocents around us that we’re actually terrible people.”

Colby yells throughout the building, “We’re good people! You’re safe and you can leave if you want!” People are either not moving or shaky in their movements. “They’re free to go. Why is no one moving on?”

“Uh, not sure. Maybe it’s the whole shock of being shot at by concentrated light? Or maybe it’s the presence of three teenagers taking down bad guys with supernatural powers then talking about different ways to torture a person?”

Nathan shrugs his shoulders, “Eh, worrying about your image is gonna get in the way of the true task at hand. We just do what we need to do and go.”

“FREEZE!”

The automatic doors slide open to allow in two police officers, already pointing their regular firearms in our direction. The three of us turn to their direction, remaining in our relaxed stances.

Nathan re-engages the conversation, “Well, we did what we needed to do here.”

The younger officer was adamant with keeping his gun trained on me. “Get your hands up now!”

“Now we gotta go,” Colby whispers.

The older officer standing closer to the doors calls out to his colleague, “Officer, stand down! The report was two males and one female with specialized firearms, and they’re laid out on the ground; we’re done here.”

“I said HANDS UP!” The younger ignored.

“Justin, calm down!”

My body twitched; my shoulders tensed. My eyes can tell that this person in front of me was not Justin, my Justin; my Justin is not a 25-year-old-looking Caucasian man with blond hair and overly-broad shoulders. Still, the mention of his name sent a chill down my spine and heat in my face as my eyes instinctively turned icy-blue.

Noticing the intensity radiating off my body and through my slight growl, Colby grabs at my arm and yells this time, “We gotta go!” I stomp the ground once, shaping a circle and having the consequent flipping of the circle swallow the three of us into darkness.

***

Minutes pass, and a circle forms on the asphalt just behind the studio before collapsing to allow the three of us to rise. 

“That older officer was surprisingly nice to us,” Colby points out as he removes his mask from his face once inside the studio.

Nathan comments, “Good, because if either of them fired at us, the place would’ve gotten uglier than it already was.”

“Oh, so you’re an expert in interior design now? Among the vast other things that you’re an expert in?”

“You don’t need to be an expert to know that that was an ugly bank.”

Both chuckle at each other, but notice that I’m not chuckling with them; in fact, I’m leaning against the bars nailed on one of the walls, gripping on the wood so much almost to the point of it breaking under my pressure.

Nathan approaches me, “What’s up?”

No eye contact, just simply growl with intensity, “When we confront Justin, do you trust me that I’ll do what needs to be done?”

Colby walks over, “And what exactly needs to be done? ‘Cause you’re making it sound like you’re ready to kill and you’ve made it clear multiple times that we don’t do that.”

“I never said kill, but --”

“But your tone says otherwise.”

“-- But he has put innocent lives at risk. John & his friends, the people at the charity game, Marvin, and the people at Emerald Heights; he endangers people whether he hypnotizes them or uses those hypnotizes to wreck havoc all around. He needs to be stopped.”

“Okay, how do we stop him?”

“I don’t know.”

“Fine, back-track: how did Justin know to target John & company and Marvin? How would he know their connection to you or if they had powers?”

“I don’t know.”

“Fine: why would he target people at your school? And does he know about your powers?”

“I don’t know!”

“Then what do you know, Matthew?!” Colby and I turn to see that Nathan was the one to speak last.”

I say, “I’m trying my be --”

“Man, honestly answering your question, I don’t trust you in doing what’s necessary.”

“What?!”

“We have no solid confirmation that this ‘Justin’ is your Justin from middle school, all we have going for us is the name Justin; but you had to jump straight into the assumption that you knew this Justin when that name is used all around the world. Also, you’ve focused so much on the assumption that it’s him that you can’t even properly strategize on what to do next since you’re so consumed with anger literally by the mention of his name as seen by a few minutes ago. Next, you may have the powers now, but you don’t have what it takes to kill or torture anybody because that’s not who you are. And --”

“You don’t know what I am!”

“Oh please, you are so easy to read! Your whole ‘heart-on-the-sleeve’ bit makes it so easy, and it’s literally in your powers that you’re ruled by your emotions, which will eventually bite you in the ass.” I try to push him away from me, but he easily swats my arms away and continues, “And what’s worse: you’ve lost perspective on why we’re doing all of this hero stuff.”

Colby tries to cut in, “Nathan, leave him alone.”

We ignore his attempt as I continue, “We are here to help people.”

Nathan jabs, “No! We’re here to help you stop him since that’s all you’ve been focused on for the past two weeks, Justin. You’ve lost your own perspective ever since this mess started. Why are you even so fixated on him? Just because he didn’t talk to you after being in one class with him? That’s life! People leave, it hurts, you learn, you move on!”

“I needed closure!”

“No, you NEED closure for something that happened years ago, and hearing his name again sparked that chance for you to get this so-called closure and you’ve been just angry all the fucking time because of it.”

“Well at least I show my emotions and reach out to people when I need it.”

Colby attempts to cut in again, now physically trying to get in between us, “Matthew! You need to calm down.”

Nathan pushes past him, “Hey, I don’t need to be a bleeding heart to live. And this isn’t about me so don’t try to redirect it away from you.”

“But it’s necessary. The only people you’ve been talking to have been me and Colby; everyone else rarely practices with you because of your overbearing intensity and constant need for work. Not to mention that you hate Jack for some reason.”

“I don’t hate him; I am suspicious and do not trust him.”

“After a month of knowing him?! I understand not trusting him for a day or week since you don’t know him like that, but a whole month? You’ve known me for years, fought with me for years; so why don’t you trust that I trust him?”

“Because again, bleeding heart. You are blinded by his accomplishments and sense of familiarity with him that you can’t objectively see his motives.”

“Do you have evidence for such ‘motives’?”

“No, but I’m working on --”

“Do you really think so little of me that I can’t read people?”

“Oh, fuck off with that self-pity shit.”

“Now what the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“You are literally so capable of anything you can set your mind to; hell, you can control the four elements! But you always have to look for your parents’ or your friends’ or anyone else’s approval to what you do for some reason that I --”

“ENOUGH!”

Throughout the conversation, Nathan and I both failed to notice Colby taking in heavy huffs of air, eyes glowing with rage and … silver.

The two of us look at him dumbfounded as he progressively brings his voice into a yell, “Matthew, you’ve said yourself in the beginning that this is a team effort with no clear leader, and we as your team are saying that you’ve been too reactive to this situation instead of thinking of the full situation. Nathan, Matthew is our friend and he’s trying his fucking best, and I know you’ve been hurt but you need to chill and focus on the team --”

Nathan defends himself, but intakes a deep breath before going on, “I am focusing on the team! I’m not buddy-buddy with the team, but that doesn’t mean --”

“No, focusing on the team doesn’t just mean training them; it’s connecting and making teamwork physically smooth & beyond …”

The conversation goes on for a few seconds, but I can’t seem to focus on the words and the emotions spilling right in front of me; it feels like my lungs are on fire or at least pushing more than they usually do because of the latent asthma. I notice Nathan also struggling to breathe, but he seems better at controlling his breathing than me. Colby, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to be struggling with his breathing although he’s also breathing heavily and frustration’s pretty much bleeding off of him.

Nathan comes back, “Why are you defending him?” My chest and shoulders are jumping up and down, and the claws on my fingertips retract.

Colby growls, “I wasn’t defending him! I was literally talking about how he was being reactive to the situation. Are you even listening?!” I’m gripping my chest with both hands.

“I’m listening well enough to hear more of your arguments going against me than against him.” My knees feel weak, but the back of my eyes suddenly have this immense pressure flaring up.

“You want me to judge Matthew more? Fine, here’s what you want,” before turning back to my direction; “Matthew,” he starts before processing with wide eyes what he sees me doing.

I begin, “He’s not --” but I’m immediately cut off by the fainting spell coming over me. Luckily, Colby catches me in time.

Colby says as he kneels down to drop me gently, “What the hell just happened?” He turns back to Nathan, but he notices Nathan heaving more and more.

Nathan tries to reach out to Colby, “Calm down, Colby. You need to calm down,” before passing out himself into Colby’s arms as well.

Colby does the opposite of what he needs to do: freaks out even more at the sight of his two best friends unconscious and struggling to breathe right in front of him. He grips at his hair, sits more into his kneel, and frantically looks between the two of us. Eventually, his frantic pacing of his head leads his gaze to the mirror on the opposite side of the studio; he finally notices his irises to be different than his usual dark-brown coloration, but rather a bright silver and much whiter than Calm’s hushed gray.

He says to himself, “Well, that’s new.” He finally processes what Nathan breathlessly said a few minutes ago and closes his eyes. He tries to slow his breathing while checking the pulses of both me and Nathan; there are no immediate changes in consciousness, but both pulses seem to be coming back to normal pace. 

As if by luck, Therese walks into the studio and immediately goes into nurse mode once finding the three boys on the wooden floor. “Oh my gosh, what happened?”

Colby opens his eyes to see her, but tries so hard not to break into another panic or even tears, “I don’t know. We just came back from the bank mission, broke into an argument, then these two suddenly passed out but I didn’t. I think I did something while I was getting mad, so I’ve been trying to calm down but they haven’t woken up yet.”

Therese responds while checking Nathan and I’s pulses and chest rises herself, “Well, whatever you’re doing, don’t stop. While they’re clearly unconscious and their breathing patterns are slower than normal, they seem to be breathing and getting back into a normal pattern; CPR, resuscitation, or revival by AED don’t seem to be necessary.”

“Okay. I’m trying to calm down.”

A few minutes pass with Colby slowing his breath and Therese monitoring our vitals; and eventually Nathan and I are awake but still recovering on the floor.

Therese tries to find an answer in us, “I’ll ask again: what happened?”

Nathan simply shrugs his shoulders, but I say, “I might have an idea.” Everyone in the room looks at me, so I continue, “A few seconds before I passed out, my emotions shifted from Anger to Sadness; and I noticed subtle but large amounts of air flowing towards Colby. As an air-based speedster and a manipulator of air, I think that he will be in more need of Oxygen to feed on when he’s agitated.”

Nathan and Colby mouth off simultaneously, “Well, that’s new.”

“He’s hogging the Oxygen around the room, thus the oxygen available for us to use depleting.”

Therese tags in, “Hence, passing out.”

I turn my attention to her while I’m still concentrating my breathing, “Therese, what are you doing here? It’s the weekend.”

“I needed to train more, so I came.”

Nathan jokes, “To be more perfect than you already are?”

Colby interjects, “Nathan, don’t say it like that.”

Therese actually giggles while standing, “No it’s okay. I know people think I’m trying to be perfect, because that’s exactly what I’m doing. I can’t mess up in the real world. The stakes are too high for me or anyone to mess up, so I need to train.”

“Damn, and I thought Nathan was intense.”

Nathan inputs, “Yeah, that’s some intense mindset for someone with little to no fighting experience.”

Therese tilts her head nonchalantly, “Exactly what I need. Besides, Dance team of any level drills that type of thing into you eventually, not to mention the pre-Nursing programs I signed up for.” She then turns her attention back to me, “That’s some deduction about what Colby did to you while still recovering, Matthew.”

I laugh weakly, “I’ve calmed myself down, so I can heal a little faster now. And I needed to prove to Nathan that I can use my head for once.” Nathan actually chuckles, no matter how weakly, along with Colby; Therese just looks confused. “Looks like we needed to unlock a power and almost die of oxygen deprivation to figure out what to say, but I need to say sorry to you, Nathan; to all of you.” Backs straighten quickly. “I’ve been so hyper-focused on this one person, and I don’t know if that’ll change quick enough; but I established this group because I knew we can help people, not just to help me cope with this situation. Well, this situation might have never happened if we didn’t get powers, but I know that I need to do better now that we do have powers; we need to work together more logically if we’re going to see things clearly.”

Therese and Colby relax their bodies in anticipation of the possible tension, but Nathan moves to transition his body so that he’s facing me, “And I admit that I’m not the best with people, even you guys. I don’t think I can change me, so there’s not much of a chance that you will drastically change me; but please know that I’m trying to trust these newbies. I respect them, but I’m still figuring out trust.”

“I know you are. And hey, I really do appreciate you calling me out like that. I need that to keep perspective; and like you said, my powers are basically a billboard showing what my personality is like.”

“Good, ‘cause that’s what you get with me.”

I promptly turn to Therese, “Therese, do you mind if I have the floor with Nathan & Colby for a little bit?”

She responds, “Okay; I’ll be getting ready then. Oh, and when you’re ready, can you help me with my sai-twirling? I’ve seen you work those fans and I need to learn that.”

“Gotchu;” She picks up her active-bag from the floor before walking onto the dressing room. I then turn back to Nathan, “Nathan, can you materialize two beakers or whatever kind of container with a lid?”

He nods before saying, “Sure thing.” He presents both of his hands, palms-up, in front of his chest and takes a deep breath inwards; his exhale somehow projects crystals quickly materializing into glass before eventually forming altogether as small beakers with glass lids already on top. “What are these for?”

Without a response, I uncap the beakers and hand the lids to Colby. A deep inhale and eyes closed one second, the next second with a deep exhale with eyes opening to show Calm’s grey eyes. I bring my hands close to my face, palms facing me, before spitting a rather large amount of this light-purple liquid onto them; proceeding to move my hands in a graceful manner, I manipulate the liquid to travel through the air & finally into the beakers in equal amounts.

Colby, lips pursed and eyebrows furrowed close together, interrupts, “What are these?”

I revert back to normal form before answering, “These are beakers full of the Acetylcholine-antagonist/lavender toxin I used earlier. One for each of you.” I grab one of the containers from Nathan’s hands in order to hand it to Colby.”

“Okay. Now what are these for?”

“Personal use.”

Nathan makes a fist of celebration with his free hand, “Sweet.”

I turn back to him, “I was just kidding.”

“You’re still no fun.”

I chuckle before looking at both of them, “As much as I’ve trusted the others with this journey, I only trust you two to always keep it real with me. So, if you ever see me out of place or control, I need either of you to throw this at me.” More confusion comes onto Colby’s face, and Nathan’s face follows quickly. I reassure them, “It won’t be lethal with me because I can control it through my bloodstream. In fact, it’s only lethal if I’m not around if you ever decide to use it on anyone except me. Can I trust you two with such a thing?”

“Of course you can trust us.” Nathan.

“Sure, okay.” Colby.

“I knew I could.”


End file.
